17 ways to design better homes and developments

Key highlights of the Living with Beauty report

The main points from the commission’s 190-page Living with Beauty report include:

• Speeding up the planning process for buildings and developments where a greater consideration of design is demonstrated
• Planting millions of roadside trees over the next five years
• Increasing democracy and involving communities in local plans and planning applications, including using digital technology such as virtual reality and 3D modelling
• Charging zero or 5% VAT on renovation work to encourage this approach over demolition
  
  

Key highlights from the National Housing Audit

The report found that while there has been a small improvement in housing design quality since the last audits were carried out between 2004 and 2007, there is plenty of scope for improvement:

• A wide distribution of “good” and “poor” scores across the country shows that there is scope to create high quality housing developments wherever they are
• Practice is patchy – the West Midlands was the most improved region, while the East Midlands and the South West were below average
• Resident satisfaction contrasts with community satisfaction – so while residents are broadly positive about their new homes, the neighbourhoods generally come in for more criticism
• On the plus side, design for safety and security and the variety of house types has improved since the last audit

Click here to download the infographic.