Associations asked to back quality design

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment said it was important for associations to speak up because most house builders were likely to say that the Homes and Communities Agency’s proposed design standards would drive up costs to unacceptable levels.

The HCA consultation proposes space standards as well as saying that every scheme funded by the agency should score 14/20 on Building for Life, a set of guidelines for design of housing set up by a panel of experts including Cabe, the Civic Trust, architects and planners in 2001.

Matt Bell, director of education and external affairs at Cabe, said: ‘We would say often good design means you can get a more efficient site layout and can end up with more units and more value through good design. For those house builders that see themselves in the business of placemaking standards like these will feel less of a problem, whereas for others who would see themselves more as in the business of retailing housing units it feels like an imposition.’

A spokesperson for the Home Builders Federation said he supported minimum standards in social housing, where people had less choice of home, but said they did not support the standards in the open and intermediate markets, where buyers and renters had a choice of accommodation. The HBF estimated the new proposed standards could cost up to £30,000 per home.

Meanwhile Richard Simmons, chief executive of Cabe, said some schemes funded by the HCA’s Kickstart programme for stalled projects had been given planning permission despite not being well enough designed

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