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Make beauty a condition of grant funding, says government commission
Housing funding should only be granted for “beautiful” developments, a flagship government commission has said.
In its interim report published yesterday, the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission called on ministers not to “subsidise ugliness”.
“The delivery of beautiful and resilient places should be made a condition of targeting of government subsidy and grant regimes, such that measurable outcome and targets are reset to incentivise delivery on the public side,” the commission said.
It also recommended that the planning system should give beauty greater attention, with councils supported to publicise examples of “poor and ugly schemes” they have turned down, in order to encourage more attractive designs.
The commission also emphasised the need for communities to have a bigger role in planning, with the attractiveness of potential schemes made “an explicit topic for engagement”.
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Nicholas Boys Smith, interim chair of the commission, said: “Our initial report sets many ways we can make our country more beautiful while fulfilling the needs of future generations who will need a roof over their head.
“We need to move the democracy upstream from development control to plan-making.
“Beauty should not be just a property of the old buildings or protected landscapes but something we expect from new buildings, places and settlements. We need to deliver beauty for everyone, not just the wealthy.”
Mr Boys Smith was installed as interim chair after previous incumbent Sir Roger Scruton was sacked following controversial comments made in an interview with the New Statesman.
The report also said retail parks and large supermarkets should be redeveloped into mixed-use schemes.
And it emphasised the importance of homes being affordable, and criticised the government’s attempts to streamline planning through permitted development rights.
Permitted development, which allows offices to be converted into homes without planning permission, has led “to much criticism for reducing quality, levels of affordable housing and developer contributions”, the report observed.
Communities secretary James Brokenshire, who launched the commission in November, said: “I am determined to reach our target of building 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s, but it’s right that we do not do this at any expense – what is built must stand the test of time.
“We owe it to the next generation to not just build more homes, but to build communities people can be proud of.
“As a country, we should not shy away from talking about what building beautifully means – and this report is an important contribution to that discussion.”
The commission’s final report is due to be published before the end of the year.
