Two key parts of the government’s planning reforms have come under attack from environmental law experts this week.

Members of the UK Environmental Law Association’s (UKELA) planning and sustainable development working party described some provisions of the Planning Bill – which has been delayed in its progress through the House of Lords – as ‘unlawful, unstreamlined, unfair and unworkable’.

UKELA wrote this week to Hazel Blears, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, saying the bill could introduce more blockages in the system by opening up possibilities for legal challenge.

According to the letter, the bill also fails to implement the UK’s commitment to the European Environmental Impact Assessment Directive and integrate the requirements of five other European conventions.

The criticism comes as local authorities consider launching judicial review proceedings challenging the government’s eco-towns housing scheme, following the publication of a legal opinion suggesting the proposed regime may be unlawful.

Eco-towns are designed to be carbon-neutral settlements of up to 10,000 homes, distinct from but linked to existing towns, and made up of affordable housing.

The legal opinion, commissioned by the Local Government Association (LGA) and published last week, says none of these characteristics requires eco-towns to be dealt with outside the current planning process and the scheme ‘appears to be designed to circumvent the normal plan-led process’ and risks avoiding ‘proper scrutiny’.

The joint opinion, by John Steel QC and James Strachan, both of 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square chambers, says the government’s plan to promote eco-towns through a new ‘planning policy statement’ is contrary to the basic principle of plan-led development control. It also claims the government failed in its duty to carry out a strategic environmental assessment.

A government spokesman said the Planning Bill ‘will create a faster system’. In response to the eco-towns legal opinion, he said: ‘We absolutely disagree with the LGA’s claims... we have made it clear throughout that eco-towns will... have to be considered through the normal planning process.’