Explore Challenges
- 16 May: Keeping pace with a digital revolution
- Global health in the 21st Century
- Adapting to an urban future
- Educating for tomorrow
- Digital technology in Africa
- Persistent poverty in Britain
- Can the UK ever be sustainable?
- Plastic pollution in the oceans
- Natural disasters: how can we improve?
- Not In My Back Yard
- Digital Divide in the UK?
- Importing goods, exporting drought?
- Britain’s ageing population
- Engineering our climate
- The future shape of Capitalism
- Migration: skills and the job market
- Razing the Rainforest
- London under water
- Concreting the countryside
- Future of low carbon energy.
- Africa in the 21st Century
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Concreting the countryside : In the News
House building ‘at lowest level for 50 years’
- Source: The Daily Telegraph
3rd October 2008
The number of new homes being built in Britain has fallen to the lowest level for more than 50 years, research suggests
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How do you know if it’s an eco-town?
- Source: www.cabe.org.uk
- 25th September 2008
The government’s eco-towns initiative has started a number of debates – about their size and the choice of locations, and how lessons from new towns can be applied to the existing built environment.
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Eco-town project likely to go to High Court
- Source: The Daily Telegraph
- 11th September 2008
A judge has ruled that a judicial review of the whole eco towns programme should go ahead
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Tesco pulls out of eco-towns project at Hanley Grange
- Source: The Times
- 29th August 2008
A quarter of the developers on the Government's shortlist of 15 eco-towns have now abandoned the schemes, which have prompted widespread protests.
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An interview with the Housing Minister, Caroline Flint
- Source: The Times
- 27th July 2008
Government Housing Minister Caroline Flint says the 15 potential ‘eco-towns’ in the UK can provide more affordable housing in areas under pressure both in terms of supply and affordability, but admits some greenfield sites will be lost.
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Housing and Regeneration Bill passed
- Source: www.parliament.uk
- 27th July 2008
The Housing and Regeneration Bill 2007-08 passed by Parliament in July aims to, among other things, reform social housing and social housing regulation, and support the delivery of 3 million new homes.
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Millions more homes needed by 2020
- Source: The Daily Telegraph
- 26th June 2008
The Government has been told that in order to make housing more affordable 3.48 million new houses need to be built by 2020. The article details which areas are most in need of new affordable houses to be developed and how this should be approached.
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Most ecotown sites ‘unsuitable’, say experts
- Source: The Guardian
Just one of the 12 sites competing to become one of Gordon Brown's ecotowns is currently considered suitable by the government's green consultants.
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