Architects from across the world will be invited to take part in a competition to design Britain’s ten new eco-towns, it will be announced today.

Yvette Cooper, the Housing Minister, will ask the leading creative designers in urban and landscape architecture and transport planning to share their suggestions for the towns of up to 20,000 homes The first phase of the competition will focus on the overarching design principles of eco-towns, particularly innovative ideas for low and zero-carbon living.

The second phase, led by the successful local authorities, will focus on the design of each individual town once sites around the country have been determined.

Local people will be involved in the design process.

Ms Cooper said that her vision would involve a variety of different architectural styles and types of building within each town.

She said that eco-towns should be the antithesis of the monolithic, identikit style that was too often associated with new housing.

Ms Cooper pointed to new housing developments in Scandinavia and the Netherlands as inspiration for her type of approach but stressed that each new eco-town should draw on the local history and character of its surroundings.

The aims of the competition are to gather ideas from the best national and international thinkers in the fields of town planning, urban design, architecture, landscape design, transport and environmental planning.

The Government’s vision for eco-towns is large-scale free-standing new settlements that are exemplars of sustainable building and living, with the opportunity to design low and zero-carbon technology from the beginning.

The Government wants to ensure that the delivery of eco-towns makes as much use of the existing infrastruc-ture as possible.

It is encouraged that some, or even many, of the initial bids have proposals for developers to invest towards rail provisions The Government said that it saw eco-towns providing a major contribution to the housing supply and increasing affordability, including up to 50 per cent of affordable housing.

The ideas and lessons gathered through the competition will be drawn together for use by the councils and developers who will take forward the eco-town proposals.

The Government said that each of the new towns should have its own strong identity, reflecting local character and appeal.

They will be well-designed, attractive places to live, with jobs and services and good links to existing nearby towns and cities.

Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, announced on Monday that the number of eco-towns was being doubled from five to ten.

Expressions of interest by councils and developers in bringing forward eco-towns should be made by the end of next month.

The Government expects to announce schemes which will be supported through the planning process in the first half of 2008.

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