Jenrick: New design guide to deliver beautifully designed homes

Outdated guidance and unenforceable design ideas will be replaced with plans to deliver beautiful homes that families and communities are proud to call their own, through a brand-new building design guide launched today by Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick.

Currently there is no accepted national standard for the development of homes, only vague documents with little enforceable power. This new design guide will introduce a national standard for local authorities to adhere to, with the option of designing their own applicable guides reflecting local needs. Where possible emphasis will be placed on tree-lined streets and green infrastructure, in line with the government’s broader environmental focus.

The design guide, published by the government today, will have genuine clout and be capable of being a material consideration in planning applications and appeals, meaning that local planning authorities should take it into account when taking decisions. Ministers will lay a Written Ministerial Statement setting out its purpose and how it is expected to be used, while the National Planning Policy Framework will be updated to reflect this at the first opportunity.

The government is determined to enhance the roles of local authorities, combined authorities and mayors in owning the aesthetics and development of their areas. The new design guide is part of a broader commitment to localism. It will provide local residents with a greater say in the design of homes built in their own area, allowing them to take the key characteristics provided at a national level as a foundation and apply them in the most locally appropriate way.

This new vision will enhance the roles of local authorities, combined authorities and mayors in shaping the aesthetics and development of their areas.

We will make the planning system work in support of better design and style, not against it.

Robert Jenrick, the Housing Secretary, said:

“The government is committed to building the homes this country needs, but it is not all about bricks, mortar and numbers. Too often, new developments come at the expense of beauty, quality and design. This shouldn’t be the case and the Conservatives are determined to deliver homes that families and communities are proud to call their own.

“As Housing Secretary, I am replacing the existing vague and outdated guidance with a brand-new national design guide. It will be produced with a more ambitious and firmer vision for better designed homes.

“This new design guide will have real clout. There will be a national standard for local authorities to adhere to, but we recognise that what good likes like differs across England. So, for the first-time local authorities will be expected to design their own locally applicable guides in keeping with the national standard, which must deliver the quality of homes that we expect.

“I want to put people at the heart of the housing process and provide a strong blueprint for building homes that families are proud to live in, recognising beauty and design in the most locally appropriate way.”

ENDS

For further information, please contact Tom Kennedy on 07985 474257.

Notes to Editors

• We are publishing a new design guide with a vision for better designed homes – and this will be led by local people who know best what works for their area. We want to give local authorities the opportunity to develop and implement their own design code, taking the principles of a national guide but adapting it to optimise design and beauty in the most locally appropriate way. This is part of a broader vision to enhance the roles of local authorities, combined authorities and mayors in shaping the aesthetics and development of their areas.

• This initial publication is only the start of our ambition. Early next year we will be going further and creating a ‘model design code’ with wide applicability based on extensive consultation. This will, in a more detailed and prescriptive way, set out the principles of good design.

• Building homes is an issue of quality as well as quantity – too often, new developments are seen as undesirable and we must change this. We know from the British Social Attitudes Survey that people are more likely to support developments that are better designed. The ‘Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission’ has three primary aims: to promote better design and style of homes, villages, towns and high streets; to explore how new settlements can be developed with greater community consent; and to make the planning system work in support of better design and style, not against it. [1]

• We launched the ‘Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission’ in autumn 2018, demonstrating our commitment to building better designed homes.  This commission will tackle the challenge of poor-quality design and build of homes and places, across England and help ensure as we build for the future, we do so with popular consent. This will put people at the heart of the housing process: building homes that they are proud to live in. The Commission will gather evidence from both the public and private sector to develop practical policy solutions to ensure the design and style of new developments, including new settlements and the nation’s high streets, help to grow a sense of community and place, not undermine it. The Commission will report to the Secretary of State in December 2019.[2]

• The National Planning Policy Framework was updated in February 2019 to give extra weight to new design. This followed the commitments in the 2017 Housing White Paper to give a stronger voice in the design of new housing to drive up the quality and character of developments. Effective engagement between applicants, communities, local planning authorities and other interests is  now expected throughout the development process, but this new design guide will go far further in setting and enforcing standards.[3]

• We have delivered 232,800 extra homes in 2018-19, the largest increase since records began in 2010. There was a net increase of 232,800 in the number of domestic properties with a council tax band in England between March 2018 and March 2019.[4]

• Labour don’t believe in helping people to achieve the dream of homeownership. Jeremy Corbyn described homeownership as a ‘national obsession’, they voted against our stamp duty cuts and if they were in government, they would scrap Right to Buy.[5]

• The last Labour Government’s record on housebuilding shows they can’t be trusted to deliver the homes people need. Housebuilding under Labour fell to levels not seen since the 1920s. Between June 2008 and June 2009 only 75,000 new homes were started, the lowest level of housebuilding in peacetime since the 1920s.[6]