The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) – the government's adviser and main cheerleader on eco-towns – is now highlighting their role as "exemplars", with the potential to show the way for existing settlements. In numerical terms, Chief executive Gideon Amos doesn't seem to be aiming too high:

"The success of an exemplar Eco-town will pave the way for renewing our current neighbourhoods as eco-burbs and urban eco-quarters."

One eco-town? It's a bit of a come-down from Brown's promise of ten, but what a lot of people have been saying for a while.

Has today been picked as a good day for a climbdown? The papers published this morning – a draft planning policy statement (PPS) and sustainability assessments of the bids – were supposed to be out in September. But the Communities and Local Government (CLG) website says "printed copies are not yet available for all of the documents." So why the sudden rush? Tory Grant Shapps is suspicious:

"It is no wonder that the government has published the long-awaited small print on eco-towns on the day of the US elections."

The TCPA seems to have mastered the small print very quickly. Its press release appeared even before the official documents were online. Amos says the new policies "set out standards more demanding than any other development". He previously said that eco-towns standards "far outstripped" other developments so either the standards have slipped or he has regretted such a rash statement.

I – and others – would still dispute what he says. The draft PPS says homes in eco-towns must be at level 4 of the government's code for sustainable homes. But, for example, all at homes Barratt's Hanham Hall "eco-village", will be at level 6. Liberal Democrat Sarah Teather says allowing eco-towns to get away with Level 4 "makes a mockery of their environmental claims".

Neither are the standards for access to public transport particularly impressive. The draft PPS – which represents official government policy to be followed by local authority planning officials – says "homes should be within ten minutes' walk of frequent public transport". Does this mean all homes in the town? Apparently not. In July CLG said "the average home" would be within ten minutes' walk of frequent public transport, which presumably means some could be up to 20 minutes away.

You get the impression that the PPS is being used to exaggerate eco-towns' environmental credentials rather than provide constructive guidance.

Last week, Beckett said that Brown's promise of 3 million new homes by 2020 was never a target but merely an "ambition". I'm sure it won't be long before we are told that there were only ever going to be one or two, exemplary, eco-towns.

Chris Ames, a freelance writer and investigative journalist, is editor of iraqdossier.com