Communities England (CE), the government’s new housing delivery quango, will take on the responsibility of delivering the “eco towns”promised by prime minister Gordon Brown. A consultation document setting out the powers of the new agency, a combination of the Housing Corporation, English Partnerships and the housing delivery functions of CLG, said: “CE will be instrumental in implementing new eco towns proposals and other future housing growth initiatives.” It added that Brown’s eco towns “could be built on public sector surplus land, such as former MoD or NHS sites.<br><br>”The document also goes on to propose extending CE’s compulsory purchase order powers beyond those of EP, which are limited to underused, contaminated or derelict sites. “Given the wide remit of CE and the need to consider places holistically when developing them, we are considering whether to remove the current restriction to brownfield land,”it says.<br><br>The new agency will be responsible for delivering homes in the growth areas, excluding the Thames Gateway, the delivery functions of which, said the paper, will be reviewed. Communities England will also look at ways to “unlock developer contributions… including through local tariff models such as the one [the roof tax] English Partnerships operates successfully with the local authority …