Gordon Brown has announced that he plans to commission the building of five ‘eco towns’ on former industrial brownfield sites to avoid swallowing up the countryside or green belt land. The proposed new developments will provide up to two hundred thousand ecologically friendly new homes. Current research shows the households are responsible for about twenty seven percent of the UK's carbon emissions; almost a third of the nation's total energy consumption.

Mr Brown believes that the UK is facing a housing problem that has to be dealt with and that more sustainable and affordable homes will have to be built. Mr Brown said he envisaged "communities with combined heat and power with a whole range of eco measures including better public transport, cycle lanes that actually make it possible for us to have a very much higher quality of life in our new buildings, in our new towns", he added that, "I think the great advantage is that you can plan the whole thing in the way that you have roads, you have bus routes, cycle lanes and you also have your schools built in the most environmentally sustainable ways and all your community facilities.”

One of the sites being considered to become a ‘new town’ is a former MoD base at Oakington in Cambridgeshire, which is currently an asylum seeker holding centre.

As well as environmentally friendly products and building techniques being used, Orientation is something commentators also foresee being used; south-facing homes can maximize so-called "passive solar gain", using the sun to heat rooms wherever possible and spaces prone to over-heating, like offices, can be built with a north-facing aspect to reduce the need for air conditioning.

Many hope that this new Government initiative will signal good news for first time buyers, with key workers like Teachers and Nurses expected to benefit; commentators are also hoping that the Government will give further assistance to regular first-time buyers who are desperately trying to get a mortgage and their feet on the property ladder.