Housing Associations are being set more hoops to jump through this week. In return for their grant, associations may soon have to demonstrate their commitment to better housing design. They'll be asked to nominate "design champions" – people whose job is to ensure design criteria are high on the agenda (page 13). It's a reasonable exchange, though, and not before time. There have been beacons of imagination and flair – some of which are showcased on pages 24-28 – but it's fair to say that over the past two decades humdrum boxes have been the norm in social housing.

This isn't entirely RSLs' fault. The lowest price, rather than best value, has been the culture handed down from on high, and much social housing has been procured from the leftover scraps of private developers under section 106. But with Changing Rooms and architecture programmes as primetime viewing, good design is more marketable, and housebuilders are catching on – but not fast enough. If the move towards high-density development is to be successful, then good design must be a priority. It doesn't have to be elaborate, and it shouldn't, as some architects are wont to think, mean the triumph of aesthetics over function and space planning.

It certainly represents a challenge – particularly with the edict this week that new homes will have to be built to even higher energy efficiency standards (see page 11). But it's not about discovering a budding Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen or Terence Conran to sit on the the board. Design champions are common-sense champions. Looking among your managers is a good place to start.

Good design shouldn’t mean the triumph of aesthetics over function and space planning

The continuing fiasco over the sudden redeployment of the local authority social housing grant is offering the sector a glimpse of the future under the Communities Plan. For all the oddities of the grant system, it did give give councils freedom over how they could spend the money. The Communities Plan is more about centralised control and concentration of resources.

The creation of a single pot of money by merging the housing investment programme and the approved development programme will inevitably mean more competition for resources at the local level. How the money is divided up will be decided by the new regional housing boards. There looks like being no place at their tables for either councils or registered social landlords.

Source

Housing Today