To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will place in the Library a copy of each full assessment from which her Department's eco-towns assessment summaries published in June 2008 were made. (273597)

Given the nature of the eco-towns assessment summaries there is not a full assessment document of each location that I am able to place in the House Library. The assessment summaries were working documents intended to give feedback to promoters where schemes were not selected for shortlisting. They identified in outline from a range of source material at that time, the issues arising from the initial scrutiny of the eco-town proposals.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer my hon. Friend the Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps) of 25 March 2009, Official Report, column 471W, on eco-towns, which external advisers conducted the eco-towns Financial Viability Study; and at what cost to the public purse. (273690)

The assessments undertaken in the Financial Viability Study of the Eco-towns Programme were carried out by a team led by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). The team included: DTZ; Buro Happold; Davis Langdon: and DentonWildeSapte. Further details about the work carried out and our external advisors are set out in section 1.3 and Appendix A of the Study, which is available on my Department's website.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/pdf/1165892.pdf

As set out in my answer to the hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps) of 25 March 2009, Official Report, column 471W, we have spent £720,800 on stage one of this contract, and are in the process of completing stage two.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which of the proposed eco-towns could be established without public funding. (274816)

I refer the hon. Member to the “Financial Viability Study of the Eco-towns Programme” (March 2009), which is available on the Department's website and provides an initial high level assessment of whether an eco-town could be economically viable in the locations that we have shortlisted. This includes conclusions on the outline financial assessment and whether the proposal has the potential to generate sufficient value to cover the direct and indirect costs of delivering the scheme without recourse to public subsidy beyond existing public sector funding sources:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/financialviabilitystudy

Later in the year, following our consideration of the consultation responses and further assessment work, including the Financial Viability Study, I will announce which locations we are satisfied have the potential to be an eco-town. Individual schemes will then need to submit planning applications, which will be for local authorities to determine through the local planning process.