Major Boost for Housing Design Quality

Local authorities are being urged to assess the design quality of all new housing schemes against Building for Life standards after they were endorsed by government.

The Building for Life standard is included in the government's updated annual monitoring report guidance for local and regional planning authorities.

Each housing scheme will be assessed against the 20 criteria, which are jointly promoted by CABE and the Home Builders Federation, the industry body representing the major residential developers.

The move aims to help councils meet housing quality aspirations in planning policy statement 3.

Matt Bell, director of campaigns at CABE, believes this sends a very clear message to planners that quality is as important as speed and volume.

"The publication of performance against this measure will provide a powerful incentive for planners to understand the Building for Life criteria and the design principles that underpin them," he said.

To improve the design of new housing, quality has to be measured alongside density, tenure mix and housing completions in the annual monitoring returns that all authorities make to central government.

The new government guidance means there will in effect be a rolling housing audit.