England’s Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) has issued its response to the Commission’s ‘Living with Beauty’ report, on how to promote and increase the use of high-quality design for new build homes and neighbourhoods, and including a foreword by Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP.
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… practical measures that will help ensure new housing developments meet the needs and expectations of communities…
… ten point plan for a green industrial revolution…
… should not be a choice between quantity and quality…
MHCLG writes:
The Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission was an independent body set up to advise the government on how to promote and increase the use of high-quality design for new build homes and neighbourhoods.
The Commission was responsible for developing practical measures that will help ensure new housing developments meet the needs and expectations of communities, making them more likely to be welcomed, rather than resisted, by existing communities.
The Commission set out its recommendations in its report, ‘Living with beauty’, published on 30 January 2020. This document sets out how the government has responded to those recommendations. ?
The Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP writes in the Ministerial foreword:
At the official launch of the Commission’s report last year, I thanked the Commissioners for producing such a thorough examination of the many issues that need to be addressed if we are to build more beautiful places. Since that time, the country has of course been facing great challenges as a result of COVID-19. The Government has put a bold package of economic support in place during the crisis, and the steps we are taking in the short- term also support our longer-term vision for a stronger, fairer, greener economy.
The Prime Minister also recently set out his ten point plan for a green industrial revolution, which will create, support and protect hundreds of thousands of green jobs, whilst making strides towards net zero by 2050. This includes plans to make cycling and walking more attractive ways to travel, making our homes, schools and hospitals greener, warmer and more energy efficient and protecting and restoring our natural environment, planting 30,000 hectares of trees every year, whilst creating and retaining thousands of jobs. These are themes that were highlighted in the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission’s report and which are given a strong emphasis in this response and the National Model Design Code.
We will continue to collaborate with local partners to understand the particular local challenges across the country and respond accordingly. The pandemic has only sharpened our focus on the need to secure good quality homes, communities and places. We need to build more homes – but as the Commission reminds us, there should not be a choice between quantity and quality; we want and need both.
The Government has carefully examined the many recommendations in the Living with Beauty report, and I am pleased to confirm that we are taking forward the great majority of the Commission’s proposals.
I welcome the report as a bold and meaningful challenge to government, local authorities and the development industry. I was struck by its three principal aims: to ask for beauty, to refuse ugliness and to promote stewardship. We need to collectively demand beauty, so that high-quality homes become the norm in this country, not the exception. We must also have the confidence to say no to schemes which we know are bad for the people destined to live in and near them. And we need to do everything we can to encourage everyone to take a longer-term, sustainable view of communities as places that must grow and evolve, in a way that works well for people.
A number of the Commission’s propositions will be key to making these changes happen. In particular, we have proposed updates to the National Planning Policy Framework to ensure that high quality design is an everyday outcome from the planning system and we have published a consultation on proposed revisions alongside this response; the National Model Design Code, also published alongside this document, more clearly articulates key design principles, and empowers communities to set out the detail of what beauty means in their areas; our manifesto commitment on street trees will bring about a fundamental improvement in the environmental quality of developments across the country; and high quality design will be further embedded at the core of Homes England’s objectives.
In August 2020, we set out proposals for fundamental reform of the planning system in our White Paper, Planning for the Future. The work of the Commission played an invaluable role, not just in highlighting the shortcomings of the current system, but in setting out a wide range of recommendations for addressing them. The White Paper includes some key aspects of the Commission’s thinking. At the time of publishing this response, we are in the process of analysing responses from the White Paper consultation before setting out our next steps on wider planning reform.
There are many more detailed recommendations that we will take forward, and we have set out our proposed course of action in this response. Together, these measures provide a more effective route to creating the new homes that our communities need. It is clear that significant changes to the planning system are overdue – so that it functions effectively for the 21st century as well as fostering beautiful places – and the Commission’s proposals make an important and timely contribution to that work.
I would like to thank the co-chair of the Commission, Nicholas Boys Smith and his fellow Commissioners – Gail Mayhew, Mary Parsons and Adrian Penfold – for their tremendous contribution in leading this work. It is clear that it was a major undertaking, and I would like to put on record my gratitude for all they have done. I would also like to thank the Commission’s team of advisers who contributed their vast expertise in support of this work and all those who provided evidence to the Commission. Finally, I would like to pay tribute to the late Sir Roger Scruton, who as co-chair played a major role in this work, not least in articulating with precision the nature of the challenge we face and illuminating the way forward with such clarity.
I am determined to work towards the goal the Commission has set in the report’s conclusion – that we should aspire to pass our heritage to our successors, not depleted but enhanced, and that we oversee a profound and lasting improvement in our built environment. Indeed, this is a challenge that everyone involved in the planning and development process should embrace. This document sets out how the Government will play its part in leading the way.
See the response HERE
