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Councils have lost no time in responding to prime minister Gordon Brown鈥檚 plan to double the number of eco-towns, with Manchester and Birmingham earmarking large brownfield sites in preparation for making bids.

Gary Pickering, deputy chief executive of Trafford council, said a former petrochemical site in South Trafford had been chosen to bid for one of the government鈥檚 eco-towns.

Birmingham council is considering either the city鈥檚 eastern corridor, along the M45, or the land to the south of the city where the MG Rover car plant at Longbridge stood, as potential eco-town sites.

Councillor John Lines of Birmingham council said: 鈥淲e are not only talking about it, we鈥檙e mapping it out and working with developers.鈥�

The communities department confirmed it had received 30 鈥渆xpressions of interest鈥� from local authorities and developers for the eco-towns scheme as of last week.

That figure is expected to rise before the deadline at the close of October. However, department sources said the government鈥檚 plan to name 10 sites by March next year would be delayed if the prime minister called a snap autumn election next week.

A deadline is still to be set for submissions to the eco-town design competition, announced by Yvette Cooper in her speech to the Labour party conference last week. Architects Broadway Malyan, Bennetts Associates, BPTW partnership, and Zedfactory are all considering entering the competition.

The Comprehensive Spending Review, tipped for next week, is not expected to detail how much will go towards the eco-towns.