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New commission announced to champion beauty in the
built environment
A commission to champion beautiful buildings as an integral part
of the drive to build the homes communities need has been
announced by the Communities Secretary Rt Hon MP today (3 November
2018).
The ‘Building Better, Building Beautiful’ Commission will develop
a vision and practical measures to help ensure new developments
meet the needs and expectations of communities, making them more
likely to be welcomed rather than resisted.
This move follows the Government recently rewriting the planning
rulebook to strengthen expectations for design quality and
community engagement when planning for development. The new rules
also ensure more consideration can be given to the character of
the local area.
This commission will take that work further by expanding on the
ways in which the planning system can encourage and incentivise a
greater emphasis on design, style and community consent. It will
raise the level of debate regarding the importance of beauty in
the built environment.
The commission has three aims:
- To
promote better design and style of homes, villages, towns and
high streets, to reflect what communities want, building on the
knowledge and tradition of what they know works for their area.
- To
explore how new settlements can be developed with greater
community consent.
- To make
the planning system work in support of better design and style,
not against it.
Communities Secretary Rt Hon MP 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 will become increasingly important as we look to create a
number of new settlements across the country and invest in the
infrastructure and technology they will need to be thriving and
successful places.
“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.”
Sir Roger Scruton has been appointed to Chair the commission,
with further commissioners to be announced in due course.
-ENDS-
FURTHER BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Biography – Professor Sir Roger Scruton
- Eminent
writer and philosopher, Prof Sir Roger Scruton has for over three
decades taught at institutions on both sides of the Atlantic
including Birkbeck College, Boston University, and more recently,
the University of Buckingham.
- He is
an author of over forty books. In his work as a philosopher he
has specialized in aesthetics with particular attention to music
and architecture. He has written several works of fiction, as
well as memoirs and essays on topics of general interest.
- He
engages in contemporary political and cultural debates from the
standpoint of a conservative thinker and is well known as a
powerful polemicist. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of
Literature and the British Academy.
- He has
been officially honoured by the Czech Republic, by the City of
Plzen and by Virginia’s General Assembly. In 2004 he received the
Ingersoll Weaver Prize for Scholarly Letters. In 2015 he
published 3 books all of which were chosen among people’s ‘books
of the year’.
- In 2016
he was recipient of the Polish Lech Kaczynski Foundation’s Medal
for Courage and Integrity and was knighted in the Queen’s
Birthday Honours List.
