Pennbury, Weston Otmoor and Middle Quinton will one day be names as familiar as Milton Keynes, Peterlee and Cumbernauld if the eco-towns get off the drawing board.

The New Towns of the earlier era were born of a determination to improve urban conditions when Britain rebuilt after the devastation of the Second World War.

Ministers, architects and planners proposing the creation of eco-towns profess a similar intention to improve the world, this time by limiting the damage wreaked on the environment by climate change.

The New Towns Act 1946 was introduced by Lewis Silkin, Minister of Town and Country Planning in the Attlee Government, as the embodiment of a report by a committee chaired by Lord Reith. Just as eco-towns are hoped to be, New Towns were intended as self-contained and balanced communities incorporating the latest ideas in urban design.

As 60 years ago, the aim is to overcome a national housing shortage and to provide new, affordable homes that people will want to live in.

Where New Towns were expected to replace ageing, decaying and war-damaged properties, eco-towns are intended to provide a means of urban living without high carbon dioxide emissions and thereby help tackle the problem of climate change.

Each of the ten eco-towns that win approval from the shortlist of 15 will be expected to be an exemplar of at least one form of sustainability while following environmentalist principles in functions such as transport and open spaces.

Ministers behind the eco-town scheme will, however, be anxious to avoid the charge of soullessness and ugliness that has been levelled at the New Towns.

Crawley still struggles to be treated as much more than an eyesore, and Cumbernauld’s shopping centre was voted the ugliest building in Britain.

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