Following on from PPG3 and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment's publication of By Design, a guide to good urban design in the planning system, the Government has announced plans to:
- require registered social landlords to apply Housing Quality Indicators, a quality measurement system, to their schemes;
- demand that rural housing be sympathetically sited and built in a style and materials that blend with the vernacular;
- initiate a revision of PPG1; and
- launch a good practice guide next year showing how good design can be achieved for higher density schemes of 30 units per hectare plus.
Some of these measures were made public in the Urban and Rural White Papers, published last month. The two strategies provide "a radical agenda for change, wherever people live," housing minister Nick Raynsford said in the RICS Hamptons lecture last month. He said that he was, "committed to better design," and that Government was prepared to "use the planning system to promote better quality and achieve better design".
Registered social landlords will be required to start using Housing Quality Indicators from next April. The measurement system was developed by the DETR and the Housing Corporation and has already been extensively piloted by housing associations. It allows the location, design and performance of a housing scheme to be assessed, taking into account such factors as play facilities and the layout of the home.
HQIs are expected to become an essential tool in development. Speaking at the Architects in Housing conference, Joined-Up Housing last month Raynsford said: "A more rigorous approach is vital. If you use criteria to compare you can learn a great deal. We believe they will have a real impact on development, and not just in the social sector."
The Rural White Paper supports the policy set out in PPG3. The paper upholds the vernacular, but also makes clear there is scope for modern design. "Sometimes modern architecture can make a real contribution to a locality," it says. The paper also favours the preparation of village design statements as part of town and village plans, but is most likely to cause consternation among private sector housebuilders with its encouragement for local authorities to insist developers match every new market home with an affordable one in small villages.
The Urban White Paper's announced review of PPG1 is some way , but Raynsford said it will "make it clear that the development of a sustainable urban renaissance goes hand in hand with protection of the greenfield."
Source
Building Homes
