BICESTER’S eco-town will go ahead despite a 50 per cent cut in Government funding, it has been announced.

Housing Minister Grant Shapps wrote to council leaders earlier this month to say the Government would continue to back genuine eco-towns.

The news has been welcomed by the town, district and county councils, who all support the 5,000-home development north-west of the town.

Cherwell District Council now expects to get up to £3m more to help get the project off the ground, on top of £9.7m it received earlier this year.

Mr Shapps said: “We will back genuine new eco-town or eco-village developments, which have broad-based local support and are genuinely environmentally sustainable. We will not impose eco-town developments (through national planning rules) on communities which do not want them.”

Michael Gibbard, Cherwell’s executive member for planning and housing, said this meant it was still full steam ahead for the eco-town. He expects the first planning application to be submitted in the autumn.

He said: “The new Government has new, exciting ideas to reward the delivery of eco-houses and we intend that Bicester will be right at the front of the queue for that additional cash, which we want to invest in the town as a whole.”