Today marks the launch of A Housing Design Audit for England. URBED supported this large scale audit of over 140 developments across England through involvement in the Advisory Board and as volunteer auditors for sites in Blackpool and Greater Manchester.
The key findings of the report are:
- The design of new housing developments in England is overwhelmingly ‘mediocre’ or ‘poor’, with less-affluent communities the worst affected;
- 75% of new housing development should not have gone ahead due to ‘mediocre’ or ‘poor’ design. One in five of these developments should have been refused planning permission outright as their poor design was contrary to advice given in the National Planning Policy Framework. A further 54% should not have been granted permission without significant improvements to their design having been made first;
- Less affluent communities are ten times more likely to get worse design, even though better design is affordable;
- Low-scoring housing developments scored especially badly in terms of character and sense of place, with architecture that does not respond to the context in which it is located;
- The worst reported aspects of design include developments dominated by access roads and the poor integration of storage, bins and car parking, leading to unattractive and unfriendly environments with likely negative health and social implications;
- Some gains have been made - schemes scored relatively highly for safety and security and were also typically successful at integrating a variety of sizes of house.
