Eco-towns are 'veneer' to plans for 3m homes

Campaign groups have branded the government's plans for eco-towns a "green veneer" to mask its plans for three million new homes across the country.

They warned that building the 10 communities in the heart of England would be environmentally unfriendly, urbanise the countryside and increase traffic congestion, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Protestors are demanding to know how the 15 sites for the 200,000 new eco-homes were chosen.

Friend of the Earth co-ordinator Paul de Zylva said: "There is a real danger that we will have eco-towns on the one hand and then everything else built in a hotch-potch approach that will include dubious methods that contribute to traffic congestion and with a lack of space."