THE state of the economy has forced an eco-friendly housing development to downgrade the sustainability of some of its homes.

Lingfield Point in Darlington has said it cannot afford to begin the first phase of homes development at the site at the level of sustainability which was originally promised.

Last week, members of Darlington Borough Council’s planning committee reluctantly agreed to change the conditions of planning permission after hearing that the houses would only be viable if they were built to lower environmental standards.

However, the owners of Lingfield Point, Marchday Plc, have said that the homes would still be built to high environmental standards and the development would retain its sustainable ethos.

Lingfield Point is on the site of the former Patons and Baldwins Wool Factory in Darlington.

The £100m masterplan for the site involves a mixed use development of some 1,200 homes, a school, healthcare services, business and office space and public open land.

The first phase involves 270 homes which are expected to be completed over the next eight to nine years. Marchday had originally said it would build the houses at Code Level 4 according to the Sustainable Homes Strategy.

By 2013, all houses must built to this standard. However, Marchday asked if 100 of the first phase homes could be built to the lower Code Level 3 standard.

Marchday’s agent Peter Jeffery told the committee: “There’s no evidence that the market is paying a premium for sustainable measures.

“In the current market there’s a trade-off that needs to be put forward.

“If Marchday thought that their sustainable principles were being compromised by this then I don’t think it would even come forward.”

Marchday’s director John Orchard told members of the committee that the mixed-use nature of Lingfield Point meant that regardless of building standards it was likely to be much more environmentally friendly than most developments.

He added: “From Marchday’s point of view, I do think we have put our money where our mouth is by creating a sustainable development.

“You don’t get much more sustainable than recycling buildings.

“Our goal is to establish Lingfield Point as a place to live as well as to work.

“We’re not throwing away the vision, it’s just getting us off the ground in the first place.”

Coun Gerald Lee said: “On the basis that we can’t sell houses at the moment, we’ve got to downgrade our expectations.”