London (Platts)--14May2007

Gordon Brown, the UK's finance minister who is hotly-tipped to be the
next prime minister, plans to build five renewable energy friendly towns if he
becomes leader after PM Tony Blair steps down June 27.
     A Brown campaign statement said that Brown had set out his views on
Sunday in a TV interview, arguing for "five new eco-towns." The first would be
at an abandoned army barracks at Oakington in Cambridgeshire and would
include 10,000 new homes with electricity delivered from solar and wind power.
     Each eco-town would house between 10,000 and 20,000 new homeowners and
would be built primarily on brownfield land. Each new home would be built to
zero-carbon standards, allowing them to qualify for a zero rate of stamp duty.
A zero carbon home generates its own energy. Stamp duty is a purchase tax on
property.
     All the energy and electricity the new homes would use would be generated
locally from sustainable sources, Brown's statement said. They would all
be built with strong public transport infrastructure. There would also be zero
carbon schools and health centers.
     The Combined Heat and Power Association welcomed the news. Phillip
Piddington, director of the CHPA, said that "there is huge potential for CHP
to be integrated more fully into the UK's energy mix." He said that Brown "has
clearly identified that CHP is a technique that can deliver sustainability and
affordability to local communities."
     CHP systems are used in some housing estates to provide electricity and
also capture waste heat for use in providing heating to local homes. That is
more energy efficient than distantly-produced power, where the heat is lost
and electricity is also lost in transmission from the distant power plant to
the housing estate. Eco-towns would probably use CHP systems as well as solar
and wind power and high insulation standards.
     Woking, a town in Surrey, made major carbon savings in recent years
through the development of CHP systems as part of a town-center redevelopment
led by the local council. Allan Jones, who led the project for Woking, is now
working for Mayor of London Ken Livingstone in an attempt to improve London's
climate change position.
     New towns could be opposed in local areas by existing homeowners. But
changes to planning rules could help to make such developments easier, as well
as other major energy projects, such as new power plants.
     The government is expected to publish soon--perhaps this week--a white
paper on planning. That will be followed by an energy white paper, expected by
end of May.