Policy Exchange research: Design and style crucial to public support for new housing

The housing crisis will only be solved if the developers of new homes place more emphasis on design and style to gain the support of existing communities, according to exclusive new polling for Policy Exchange. 

Building more, building beautiful: how design and style can unlock the housing crisis, published today with a Foreword from Secretary of State for Housing Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP, shows that support for traditional design is highest among lower socioeconomic groups and that Nimbyism can be overcome if plans better reflect people’s desire for traditional building design, like Victorian terraces and Georgian blocks.

The report, co-authored by conservative philosopher Sir Roger Scruton and former Labour Mayor of Newham Sir Robin Wales, recommends how design and style should form a greater part of the planning process.

Deltapoll polling for Policy Exchange shows that:

Traditional beauty can overcome Nimbyism

• ·         Less than three-in-ten people from London and the South East believe too many homes are being built in their area. In fact, people are generally positive about new homes, even when they are built in their neighbourhood.
• ·         No more than one in ten respondents, wherever they live, feel new homes are currently built with good design and style and modern living requirements in mind. 41% of people believe the local community should have the most say over how we design new homes and communities in the South East – but only 3% believe they currently do. 37% of people believe developers have the most say – but only 11% think they should.
• ·         77 percent of respondents agree that cost is too often an excuse for badly designed, soulless new developments and 56 percent think that new modern homes are built as cheaply as possible to maximise profit for the developer. 63 percent of respondents believe that new homes can be built with good design and style and modern living requirements at the heart of the design process without spending more.

Support for traditional style is highest amongst working class communities

• ·         85 percent of respondents across all socioeconomic groups said new homes should either fit in with their more traditional surroundings or be identical to homes already there. Across all socioeconomic groups, a large majority of people agree that newly built homes and properties should fit in with their surroundings – with support among DEs reaching 79%.
• ·         Lower socio-economic groups are most likely to agree that architects should build comfortable and beautiful homes, and to disagree more strongly that new buildings should be adventurous, different or seek to shock. 31% of ABs think building should be adventurous, compared to 17% of DEs.

People believe better design enhances quality of life

• ·         84 percent of respondents agree (with 42 per cent strongly agreeing) that better quality buildings and public spaces improve people’s quality of life – the same proportion as those who think living in a well-designed community improves people’s happiness.
• ·         68 percent of respondents think a well-designed neighbourhood will reduce crime, while 75 per cent think traditional design and style improves quality of life and 65 percent of respondents think traditionally designed housing helps foster positive community relations
• ·         44% of people support medium rise developments, 70% of people support low rise traditional two storey properties and 79% of people support garden cities.

The report’s recommendations include:

• ·         Every local planning authority should produce a design and style guide in consultation with local residents
• ·         Local wishes should be incorporated into the definition of sustainable development, specifying that “planning should… always seek to secure high quality design and a good standard of amenity for all existing and future occupants of land and buildings, reflecting local public will on issues of building design and style”.
• ·         Accelerated planning permission for developments which reflect design and style codes and favourable views for developments where locals have been consulted
• ·         A new designation of ‘Special Areas of Residential Character’ to give residents confidence that new developments will be in keeping with existing look and style

In a Foreword, Secretary of State for Housing Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP writes:

“New homes shouldn’t be seen as a burden on communities but a rejuvenation. This government has made housing and creating a place you can call home a central tenet of its domestic agenda and is acting accordingly.

“Policy Exchange highlights a major concern in this report: the design, style and quality of new homes. We want to see local communities intimately engaged in helping to shape the future of the development in their area, feeding in their views on the design and style of new developments and helping local authorities create style guides and codes which developers can use to meet the needs of communities.

“I support this report's intention: to start a debate about the design, style and quality of new housing and how it best meets people’s needs. In the coming months I look forward to discussing these matters further.”

Former Labour Mayor of Newham Sir Robin Wales, who co-authored the report said:

“This research shows that people are broadly supportive of more new homes being built in their area - they just want them to be designed at a higher quality and more harmonious with their place. If the government wants to meet its target of building 300,000 new homes a year, they need to recognise that good design and style are vital to securing local consent for development. Poorer communities in particular are keen to see more traditional design and style which is more likely to fit in with existing buildings.

“At the moment, the aesthetic needs of the individual are marginalised as a result of a deficient house building system, their tastes and preferences forced aside in favour of a profit model that developers are unwilling to reform.”

“When building new developments, the aim, therefore, should not be a decisive break from the past, but building on the past and reflecting local public will.”

Leading conservative thinker Sir Roger Scruton, who co-authored the report said:

“For too many people, new homes don’t mean progress but desecration. Housing is a market in which it is not the seller and the purchaser only who have an interest in the product, but everyone else in the neighbourhood or passing through the neighbourhood, and whose amenity may be affected by what is done. It is vital that the planning process is geared to obtaining the consent of all those people, overcoming their resistance to new proposals and so lowering the political, legal, economic and social cost of the planning process.

“Our research shows that there is a large measure of consensus about the style, scale and details of the buildings that respondents would like to see in their neighbourhood, and that their resistance to new development is largely dependent on ensuring that this consensus is respected. Nor is this result surprising.

“Beauty is a universal value, which we pursue in part because it is the surest way to reconcile us with our neighbours. We want new buildings to fit in with the old, not to blaze out their defiance of the existing order, but to harmonise with the settlement all around. When people talk about beauty in architecture, it is this ‘fittingness’ that they have in mind, and in referring to it they are expressing their deepest social needs.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

This report is embargoed until 0001 on Wednesday 20^th June 2018.

Deltapoll surveyed 5,013 people online between 3^rd and 10^th May 2018. You can see a more detailed summary of the polling on our website, which includes images of different design and style presented to respondents.