The building beautiful report must drive us to plan housing for our future needs

There are almost 12 million people aged 65 and over in the UK – a number that’s expected to increase by 40% over the next two decades.

And while we may associate old age with retirement homes, more than 90% of people in later life live in mainstream housing – ordinary flats or houses. It’s alarming, then, that only 7% of existing homes in England meet accessibility standards.

Projected figures suggest that, under current plans, by 2030 only one new accessible home will be built for every 15 people over the age of 65. Even more alarming is that research by University College London found that 75% of new housing developments built across the UK since 2007 have ‘mediocre’ or ‘poor’ design, and that one in five of these developments should never have been granted planning permission.

Planning must be about how we create brilliant and beautiful places where people want to live, where we can all thrive in functioning, economically viable communities.

“It’s a welcome recommendation given the depressing homes we’ve seen built so far under permitted development rules, which allow buildings like office blocks to be converted into homes without securing planning permission or meeting basic quality standards”

It’s heartening that the Building Better, Building Beautiful report, published last week, has recognised this need for beauty at three scales: developments that are beautiful and sustainable within the landscape, beautiful public places including parks and streets, and beautiful buildings.

The report proposes that ‘ugly’ developments are publicly denied, and that a set of standards be drafted to stop cramped and indecent permitted developments.

It’s a welcome recommendation given the depressing homes we’ve seen built so far under permitted development rules, which allow buildings like office blocks to be converted into homes without securing planning permission or meeting basic quality standards.

These rules have allowed huge numbers of tiny, windowless homes onto the market, some located on industrial estates and isolated from basic amenities.

It has also recently emerged that these new conversions have resulted in a shortfall of thousands of affordable homes, as they allow developers to get around the requirement for new developments to include homes at lower costs.

It’s evidence that for too long, we’ve traded off the quality and beauty of housing developments in favour of cheap, high-density and low-accessibility estates.

This cheap-not-cheerful way of building is not going to cut it, particularly as we embrace a culture of inclusivity for people of all ages and physical mobility levels.

We urgently need to build more homes, but crucially, we need to design our homes with features that people actually enjoy: space, light, flexibility, accessibility and connectivity.

“While we are renowned throughout the world for being a creative nation, sadly our creativity appears to come to a grinding halt when designing new homes and communities”

We need our local plans to be genuine blueprints for how we grow and develop our communities and we need to move away from the ludicrous amount of time it takes to get planning consents even when they are consistent with the plan.

While we are renowned throughout the world for being a creative nation, sadly our creativity appears to come to a grinding halt when designing new homes and communities.

In an era of technology, with the ability to visualise beauty on our computer screens and design with real flexibility and future-proofing in mind, it is surely time to lift our ambitions and our sights.

Let’s build the homes and communities we really want to live in, and can continue to live in, and make sure our nation is one that’s great to grow old in.

David Orr, associate director for housing, Centre for Ageing Better