9:59 AM, 3rd February 2020, About 5 years ago 1
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Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick, indicated well-designed, high quality homes and tree-lined streets should be the ‘norm – not the exception’, following the launch of the Building Better Building Beautiful Commission’s final report.
Living with beauty – the first report of its kind led by the late Sir Roger Scruton and Nicolas Boys Smith – contains over 130 practical recommendations to support the creation of more beautiful communities, including:
Planting millions of trees over the next 5 years, as well as opening old canals and supporting every home to have its own or access to a fruit tree
Speeding up the planning process for beautiful buildings through a new ‘Fast Track for Beauty’ rule for councils
Increasing democracy and involving communities in local plans and planning applications, including using digital technology like virtual reality and 3D modelling to help locals shape their own areas
Welcoming the report at the Garden Museum, Lambeth, Robert Jenrick said: “Today’s report is important for many reasons, not least because of the powerful argument it makes that a sense of place still matters – and, arguably, in our fast-paced, globalised world, matters perhaps more than ever.
“It recognises that our identities go hand in hand with the places and neighbourhoods in which we live and work.
“That’s why beautiful, high-quality homes must become the norm, not the exception.”
Mr Jenrick said that there was plenty of evidence that instead of holding housebuilding back “championing quality would help us go further”.
He added: “I am interested in the proposal of a “fast track for beauty”. Where individuals and developers have put in the time to create proposals for well-designed buildings, which use high quality-materials and take account of their local setting, it can’t be right their planning applications are held up.
“I too want to see a return to planting more trees. We set out in our manifesto that we will expect all new streets to be lined with trees and are working to make this commitment a reality.
“I want to see zero-carbon homes being built as standard within 5 years as we learn again how our built and natural environments can work in harmony.
“And the report is right that local authorities will need to play a leading role in this design revolution. We will need to ensure they have the right skills and leadership to fully carry out their role as place-makers.
“I am therefore determined to do all I can to help achieve the goal you’ve set in the report’s conclusion – that we should aspire to pass on our heritage, the best of who we are and what we have, to our successors, not depleted but enhanced.”
The report is the latest step in the government’s commitment to delivering one million well-designed, quality homes by the end of this parliament.
Some of the recommendations are already underway, with a national design guide published by the Housing Secretary last October 2019 and a new national model design code currently in production.
Further information:
The government will issue its full response to the Commission’s final report in due course.
The Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission submitted its final report to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in December 2019 and is published today.
More details on the Commission, it’s membership and those involved in advising on the final report can be found on the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission page.
The government published a national design guide in October 2019. This sets out how councils can demand better design from developers and inspire the next generation of beautiful communities.
A new national model design code is being prepared that will set basic design standards where local areas fail to adopt their own design code. This will be published later this year.
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Michael Bond
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Sign Up11:10 AM, 3rd February 2020, About 5 years ago
Who is going to decide whether a prposed building is "beautiful"? The local planning officer?? What reason is there that they will be any better at assessing beauty than at anything else? Buildings like Grenfell Tower (before the cladding) were regarded as beautiful once, at least by the right-thinking cognoscenti. Will we have to include an assessment by an expensive "architectural beauty consultant" along with everything else we have to include with a planning application? Presumably "beauty" will take precedence over comfort and convenience for occupants? An open spiral staircase may be judged very beautiful in a small cottage but it is very dangerous for an elderly person if there is only one loo in the dwelling.
As to tree-lined pavements: in 30 years those pretty young trees will be fully grown with mature roots which will make the pavements more like skateboard parks.