Housing Minister John Healey has today backed the country's biggest ever green home building programme, with four areas sharing £60million to build over 600 new homes to the toughest ever environmental standards.

These new "eco-show homes" will be built in and around the four pioneering eco-town locations, introducing nearly 2,000 people to green living and saving them hundreds of pounds on bills. Nearly a third of these homes will be affordable.

Last year Healey gave the go-ahead for the first wave of world leading eco-town sites in Whitehill-Bordon in Hampshire, St Austell in Cornwall, Rackheath in Norfolk and North West Bicester in Oxfordshire.

By 2016, 10,000 eco homes will be built in the four landmark areas. The new homes and new neighbourhoods will be designed, planned and built to world leading environmental standards.

Today's funding will introduce greener living not only for people who go on to live in the new eco-towns, but for the 65,000 people already living nearby. Construction could also potentially create and support up to 2000 local jobs, including apprenticeships to help advance new green building skills.

People will see first hand the latest technology like smart meters to track energy use, electric car charging points, properly insulated homes built to the toughest ever standards and systems for saving water and recycling or composting waste. Most of the eco-show homes will be available for sale so that hundreds of families can experience green living and get a feel for eco-homes of the future.

The funding will also improve existing transport links, including rapid routes for buses with real-time travel information, green travel hubs and facilities for electric cars and bikes. Pioneering new energy projects will be set up so that residents take their energy from natural sources.