In a couple of Parliamentary Written answers to Michael Fabricant,
Housing Minister Caroline Flint has "washed her hands off of
Curborough". Michael Fabricant says: "After the complete shambles of
the Government’s hugely trumpeted eco-town initiative where developers
have now been pulling out of eco-town proposals up and down the country,
Caroline Flint has washed her hands off of Curborough. She refuses to
take responsibility for a misleading full page colour advertisement
bought in a local newspaper which wrongly stated that the Curborough
eco-town would be built on an old airfield. In fact, 90% would be built
on rich farming land. Instead she says it doesn’t matter because the
fine print is in a website which readers should have looked at to check
the accuracy of the advertisement.

"And now she says it is up to Lichfield District Council to build
additional housing – but this was already on the cards with 8,000 new
homes, many of them affordable housing, scheduled to be built in
Lichfield District.

"This whole project has been a fiasco from beginning to end and I will
now formally be calling for the Housing Minister’s resignation" says
Michael.

The two Parliamentary Questions and Answers are shown below:

Eco-towns: Curborough

Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and
Local Government whether Curborough remains on her Department’s list of
potential locations for eco-towns following the Curborough Consortium’s
decision to withdraw its application to build an eco-town.

Caroline Flint: I can confirm that the Curborough Consortium has
withdrawn its eco-town proposal and the site is no longer on the long
list of potential locations. We had to expect that some developers would
and will decide to remove themselves from the long list, while others
will not meet the high standards needed to make it through to our final
shortlist.

However, where eco-towns proposals are withdrawn, the local authorities
will have to face up to the challenge of increasing housing supply and
find another way to address the need for housing, and in particular
affordable housing.

Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and
Local Government what location for the proposed eco-town at Curborough,
Staffordshire is indicated in the promotional materials published by her
Department; what the location of the proposed site is; and what steps
she plans to take to correct the promotional materials.

Caroline Flint As part of the first stage of consultation the proposed
location for the eco-town at Curborough was set out in the consultation
document "Eco-towns-Living a greener future". Through promotional
material we have said that more information is available on our website,
and this includes links to the initial expressions of interest by the
promoter for the shortlisted locations, including Curborough. These
provide further details about the location. The proposal for an eco-town
at Curborough has since been withdrawn by the promoter.