Cakephp textarea

I tend to use input() for all types and then specify in the options array..

$this->Form->input('company_description', array('type' => 'textarea'));

http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/core-libraries/helpers/form.html

Try following which also include class that you specified as an option

echo $this->Form->input('company_description', array('type' => 'textarea', 'escape' => false,'class' =>'input email required');

http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/core-libraries/helpers/form.html#automagic-form-elements