Ministers are told to drop most eco-towns

The number of Gordon Brown's flagship eco-towns should be slashed by two thirds because most of the proposed schemes are not green enough, senior civil servants have warned.

They have advised ministers to cut the number from 10 to only two or three "exemplar" towns, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

The civil servants from the Department of Communities and Local Government said that most of the proposals being considered by the Government were not sufficiently environmentally friendly and would be so damaging to the eco-town "brand" that they should not be allowed to go ahead.

One source close to the bidding process said: "You wonder why some of the bids were selected in the first place. Civil servants don't want to advise ministers to go ahead with projects that are going to be a catastrophe. There are two or three in there that could proceed but some of the bids are just suicidal." Click here for more...