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.