To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will make a statement on what contribution she expects to be made to the delivery of the eco-towns programme by the Environmental and Sustainability Standard 2008 issued by the Building Research Establishment. (241977)

We have set out the high standards that eco-towns must meet in the draft Planning Policy Statement (PPS), which was published on 4 November 2008.

We are currently consulting on the draft PPS and want to hear views about whether these are the right standards. The BRE's standard is an issue that we would expect might be raised as part of this consultation, and which we would then consider in our analysis of the consultation responses before finalising the PPS.