The “eco-towns” policy promoted by Gordon Brown has suffered a setback with an official report warning that many of the schemes are little more than ordinary housing estates with a green label attached.

The report, to be released tomorrow, says some schemes, whose critics include Dame Judi Dench, need to do far more to tackle pollution and congestion. Some need to be redrawn, while others have no chance of being accepted as eco towns.

A source said: “Some are little more than ‘greenwash’. Out of 15 shortlisted proposals, we were not convinced there were 10 that had earned the right to be given the go-ahead.”

Those under question include a 600-acre development, largely on greenbelt land, at Weston Otmoor, Oxfordshire, where opposition is led by Tony and Janet Henman, parents of Tim, the former tennis star.

The report by the government’s “challenge group” – whose 12 members include Wayne Hemingway, founder of the clothing label Red or Dead and now a housing designer – will raise doubts about whether the prime minister’s ambition of meeting the housing shortage by environmentally friendly means can be realised.

Tomorrow’s report will be couched in careful language but it is understood that later this week the 12 experts behind it will have a private meeting with Caroline Flint, the housing minister, to advise which proposals should proceed.

Among the projects praised are Bordon in Hampshire, a plan for up to 8,000 homes in a disused Ministry of Defence site; Rossington, where 15,000 properties are earmarked for a former colliery village near Doncaster, South Yorkshire; and Marston Vale near Milton Keynes. Those least likely to go ahead are Ford in West Sussex; and Curborough, a scheme for 5,000 homes on a disused airfield in Staffordshire.

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