Government’s drive to improve design of homes welcomed by CPRE

The findings of the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission, an independent body set up to advise government on how to promote and increase the use of high-quality design for new build homes and neighbourhoods, have been published.

Crispin Truman, chief executive of CPRE, the countryside charity, said:

‘New homes and new places must be attractive, but also easy to get around without a car, pleasant to live in, low-carbon and friendly to nature. Yet research that we published with UCL in January 2020 found that the design quality of three-quarters of large housing developments delivered in England over the past decade or so were ‘poor’ or ‘mediocre’ and should not have been built. We need central government, developers and local authorities to create far better places for people to live and that’s why the findings of the Commission are so critical.

‘Too often new homes look as though they could have been built anywhere, and we’ve failed to make real progress on energy efficiency. The Commission is right to call for stronger local policies and for more weight given to beauty in planning decisions. The government’s forthcoming Planning White Paper is an opportunity to draw a line under decades of disastrous design and deliver the quality homes our communities deserve. We urge Ministers to take up the Commission’s recommendations.’

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