By The UK government has announced a new commission to improve new build residential developments, with the aim of both improving the design quality of new buildings and serving the needs of the local community. Communities Secretary Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP announced the new plans on 3rd November 2018 as the latest instalment in the government’s pledge to build more houses.
The new ‘Building Better, Building Beautiful’ commission has grand ambitions. The commission is designed to increase the chances of new housing developments being welcomed by local communities by re-writing the planning permission rulebook to include greater consideration of the local area’s architecture and overall character at the planning stage of new residential developments.
Speaking on the announcement of the new commission, Rt Hon James Brokenshire said: “Most people agree we need to build more for future generations, but too many still feel that new homes in their local area just aren’t up to scratch. Part of making the housing market work for everyone is helping to ensure that what we build is built to last. That it respects the integrity of our existing towns, villages and cities.”
“This commission will kick-start a debate about the importance of design and style, helping develop practical ways of ensuring new developments gain the consent of communities, helping grow a sense of place, not undermine it. This will help deliver desperately needed homes – ultimately building better and beautiful will help us build more.”
Developers might be particularly interested to hear of these new planning rules as there will be government incentives available to those developers who give greater attention to building design, style and consent from the local community. If all goes to plan, the changes should also help developers to decrease the likelihood of receiving criticism from local communities over designs for new builds.
Data from a poll carried out earlier this year by Policy Exchange, which supports the new commission, revealed that 85 per cent of respondents across all socioeconomic groups said that new home developments should either fit in with their more traditional environments or be designed identically to the homes already in situ.
By addressing these concerns early on in the planning process, the government hopes that developers will be better able to fit the construction with the local environment, thus gaining community support.
The new rules introduced by the commission that property developers will have to follow are laid down across three key aims:
- Promote better design and style of homes in villages, towns and high streets in order to better reflect what the local community wants, as well as using the knowledge and tradition of what works for each local area.
- Explore the ways that new housing developments could be built including the greater communities consent.
- Look at the ways the planning system could be improved in order to factor in better design and style to support new housing developments and reduce resistance to them.
While much has been said to support the commission, not everyone is in favour. Some architects, in particular, have raised concerns over the new commission and how the government will determine “beauty” in this context.
There have also been concerns over the appointment of Sir Roger Scruton as Chair of the commission, due to his preference for traditional architecture and his status as an outspoken critic of contemporary architects such as Norman Foster, Rem Koolhaas and the late Zaha Hadid.
Architect Charles Holland, told Dezeen: “This is the same old binary argument about traditional rather than contemporary architecture, which feels like a tedious hangover from the 1980s.”
The government, however, is hoping that the commission will help combat “nimbyism” and local community concerns around new building projects.
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