Brown Proposes to Build Five Eco Towns

The Chancellor Gordon Brown has said that he wants to see five new Eco-Towns created, equating in 100,000 new homes within new 'carbon-neutral' areas to be set up on old industrial regions.

|PIC1|Brown, who is widely expected to take over from Prime Minister Tony Blair when he steps down on 27 June, told BBC's Sunday AM programme that he wants to help create a "home-owning, asset-owning, wealth-owning democracy".

The Labour Party's national executive committee will meet Sunday afternoon to announce the timetable for leadership, as well as deputy leadership contests.

A policy debate is set to take place between Brown and two other left-wing leadership challengers, Michael Meacher and John McDonnell.

However, even though a challenge now looks likely, commentators are adamant that they pose no serious threat to Brown becoming the next British Prime Minister.

The Chancellor's proposed eco-towns could each contain up to 20,000 homes, which Brown insisted showed "imagination" in combining the need for homes with helping the environment.

One site proposed is the ex-MoD base at Oakington in Cambridgeshire, which could hold 10,000 new homes. Councils will be invited to bid for the other settlements, which Brown insisted would be laid out in environmentally friendly ways, including bus routes, cycle lanes and schools designed in a way to make them carbon neutral communities overall.

The other major agenda Brown has promoted as he drives to take over at 10 Downing Street has been the National Health Service (NHS). He told the BBC: "we've still got a lot to do to show people" it is moving "into the modern era... there for people when they need it."

He commented that he did not believe the NHS should be given full independence, and that ministers still needed to make funding decisions.