The Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission has published an independent report on how to promote and increase the use of high-quality design for new build homes and neighbourhoods:

"Living with Beauty: promoting health, well being and sustainable growth" 

The publication is relevant to Transport Planners in that it highlights the importance of designing for walkability in terms of the places, both town centres and residential areas and moving the dominance of the car

• moving away from a focus of designing for cars towards people orientated places which affects larger housing developments as well as town centres
• makes reference to the importance of Manual for Streets linking to the new MHCLG PPG and Design Guide on designing streets and places

They advocate an integrated approach, in which all matters relevant to placemaking are considered from the outset and subjected to a democratic or co-design process. And  advocate raising the profile and role of planning both in political discussions and in the wider debate concerning how we wish to live and what kind of a country we want to pass on.

Their  proposals aim for long-term investment in which the values that matter to people – beauty, community, history, landscape – are safeguarded. Hence places, not units; high streets, not glass bottles; local design codes, not faceless architecture that could be anywhere. They argue for a stronger and more predictable planning system, for greater democratic involvement in planning decisions, and for a new model of long-term stewardship as the precondition for large developments. The publication advocates a radical programme for the greening of our towns and cities, for achieving environmental targets, and for regenerating abandoned places. The emerging environmental goals – durability, adaptability, biodiversity – are continuous with the pursuit of beauty, and the advocacy of beauty is the clearest and most efficient way forward for the planning system as a whole.

The Secretary of State of MHCLG is very supportive of it and the Ministry is currently looking to include as much as it can in the further PPG work it is doing currently.

To read the full report click here