Communities secretary Sajid Javid says architecture needs to improve to win local support

sajid-javid

Communities secretary Sajid Javid has said the government will hold a conference next spring on how to improve the design quality of homes.

The government wants the thousands of new homes it is promising to build to be in keeping with local architecture – or risk losing the support of locals.

He said: “Almost three-quarters of people say they would support the building of more homes in their area if they were well-designed and in keeping with the local style. People don’t like looking at identikit red-roofed boxes that could be basically anywhere in the country.

“In the spring, we will be working with the sector and with local government to host a national housing design conference. It will be a showcase for ideas, insights and best practice from across the country and across the world, kicking off a real debate about how we can raise the design bar for everyone.”

He added that he wanted to see more local firms get involved with the planned house building boom – which will see a planned 300,000 homes built every year from the mid-2020s.

“Ever since the recession, the market has been dominated by a handful of very large developers. It used to be the case that more than 60% of new homes were delivered by small firms. Today the figure is half that, and that’s a tragedy.”