Episode 167 - Design Councils: Design for Neighbourhoods

This week we will be talking about the newly published document by the Design Council - Design for Neighbourhoods. This episode content meets PC3 - Legal Framework & Processes of the Part 3 Criteria.

Resources from today's episode:

Websites: 

• https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/
• https://www.ribaj.com/intelligence/housing-policy-climate-design-for-neighbourhoods-phineas-harper?utm_campaign=13/05/2025 Editor's cut&utm_content=On housing, quantity need to be matched by genuine and holistic quality&utm_term=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Adestra

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Transcript

Episode 167:

Hello and Welcome to the Part3 with me podcast. 

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I am your host Maria Skoutari and this week we will be talking about the newly published document by the Design Council - Design for Neighbourhoods. Todays episode meets PC3 of the Part 3 Criteria.

Lets start by looking firstly at who the Design Council is:

The Design Council was created in 1944 by Winston Churchill’s wartime government to tackle the biggest challenge of the time which was post-war economic recovery. Then over the years the Design Council became the national strategic advisor for design. They are however and independent charity organisation. 

The Design Council’s mission is to champion great design that improves lives and makes things better working across all disciplines to influence policy, showcase excellent, and provide thought leadership for the UK’s design professionals. 

The Design Council operates two main subsidiaries: the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (also known as CABE), which provides expert support and design review for built environment projects, and the Design Council Enterprises Limited, which handles fundraising activities. The Council’s work encompasses supporting business, government, public bodies, and the third sector, with a particular focus in recent years on sustainability through its “Design for Planet” mission.

Now let’s run through their latest guidance release, the Design for Neighbourhoods Document:

The document is seen as a major game changer for British housing policy. It consists of 10 core neighbourhood-scale policy recommendations which could enable the delivery of more higher quality, well-designed, environmentally sound homes supporting thriving communities. Central to the paper is the concept of a strategic whole-stock approach, embracing the economic and social opportunities of refurbishment and housing upgrades alongside new construction. 

The Design Councils report found that too many recent homes fail to meet acceptable standards, with 74% rated as mediocre or poor. Delivering new housing within the 1.5 degrees celsius climate threshold requires transforming how housing is planned and delivered. 

As such, the Design Council convened a Taskforce of industry experts from across the build environment sector to support the government’s aspirations on housing and put together the Design for Neighbourhoods Document. The Taskforce examined how design outcomes and environmental credentials of new homes are influenced by every stage of the UK housing development and refurbishment system from regulatory frameworks and strategic planning processes to land valuation and procurement. From this process of industry engagement, the Taskforce identified opportunities for policy intervention across the housing development and refurbishment pipeline where the government could act to enable the delivery of more high quality, well designed, environmentally sound homes.

As such, under the first Part of the report, which presents emergent policy recommendations and propositions aimed at improving the systemic conditions for realising great housing. The Taskforce identified 10 key opportunities to address the underlying conditions that influence the design decisions shaping the success of neighbourhoods. These consist of:

1. Adopting a ‘Whole Stock’ housing strategy, maximising the contribution of existing buildings to housing supply through retrofit and refurbishment. By creating a percentage target for homes brought back into use as part of overall housing delivery targets and investing in refurbishment and green design skills supporting existing construction workers to develop their skills in refurbishment, insulation installation and sustainable building techniques to improve housing quality. As well as supporting designers to up skill to create new and upgraded homes and neighbourhoods. Which is why The Design Council has announced an ambition to upskill 1 million designers for the green transition by 2030.
2. Target the upfront ‘embodied’ environmental impacts of construction by setting whole life carbon targets and implementing ‘Part Z’ embodied carbon standards into the building regulations making the UK the leader in sustainable development practice. 
3. Improve quality outcomes with a National Design Review Framework by creating a national Design Review Framework which is fully extended across England and Wales and mandating Compulsory Design Review for all public sector developments, large private sector developments and all developments built on public land. This will assist in embedding good design and sustainability conditionalities in Homes England and Affordable Housing funding. By adopting Design Review panels, will assist as a constructive aid to the planning process and ensure that the governments housing ambitions are properly built and delivered. 
4. Enable informed and empowered decision making by establishing Mayoral Strategic Neighbourhood Design teams with in-house planning powers for elected mayors and sub regional leaders with the capacity and capability to set relevant local design guidance engaging communities through meaningful participatory planning processes. With stronger powers and in-house expertise, mayors will be able to pioneer mission-led master development and procurement, supporting local economies and SMEs, and run streamlined design competitions and Design Reviews for strategic developments.
5. Agree a Strategic Housing Finance Settlement by agreeing a long-term Strategic Housing Finance Settlement through increasing the Affordable Homes Programme grant, long-term social rent settlement, long-term extension of the discounted Public Works Loan Board Housing Revenue Account lending rate, further reforming viability calculations and land value capture and updating Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy to deliver better public value which as a result will accelerate local authority delivery of high-quality, affordable housing projects and link good design to public funding.
6. Take a ‘Mission-led’ approach to support public sector, SME and community-led development and courage mission-led procurement, emphasising design quality over cost, for smaller developments. The government should empower Homes England to mobilise its publicly-owned master developer function and use its powers to proactively intervene in the land and development markets. By working in partnership with local and regional authorities - alongside private developers - Homes England could drive up the design quality of new neighbourhoods while diversifying delivery approaches and unlocking additionally in supply. Additionally to support SME’s, the government could expand and improve the role of the Mayoral Development Corporation which will be able to diversify delivery, proactively enabling SME developers and community-led housing providers to deliver housing on suitable sites. Reserved plots could be assigned, or a minimum delivery percentage by SMEs and community-led housing providers could be set for large sites with multiple development plots. Now for medium-size sites where a Master Developer role is not constructive, the government could encourage mission-led procurement whereby the public sector can seize the critical strategic role that commissioning plays in shaping markets that align with government policy goals. Homes England should also encourage a higher proportion of housing developments to use well-run design competitions, working with the sector to define guidelines.
7. Implement design policies to promote community cohesion and tackle the most remedial neighbourhood design offenders by tackling lonely corridors of long windowless frontages which have become standard in many new blocks of flats. As such, the Taskforce recommends that the government could introduce standards to improve the quality of shared circulation areas in blocks of flats to ensure all homes provide decent space for neighbours to stop and chat. Shared circulation areas should meet as a minimum either having a daylight factor of at least 1%, be external or have a direct line of sight between front doors and the stair and lift. Additionally, outdoor play should be enabled by legislating the design of shared circulation spaces provided with washable, external grade floor surfaces to enable more children living in housing blocks to play outside easily. Through this initiative, the government is also encouraged to reduce single use inflexible buildings, requiring developments to accommodate a mix of uses and provide a minimum percentage for buildings which can be converted to another use. It should also set limits for land that can be used for parking or road space in new developments which are considered not just environmentally damaging but also severs neighbourhoods and inhibits the design flexibility and economic viability of schemes.
8. Appoint a Neighbourhood Design Advisor to help co-chair quarterly design and placemaking Steering Boards with the Secretary of State.
9. Develop Zero Carbon New Towns by assessing new town site allocation on ‘triple viability’ which consists of social, economic and ecological viability. The New Towns Taskforce could establish a set of indicators, including proximity to established infrastructure, ecological impacts, projected embodied carbon of new construction, as well as the ability to create 40% affordable housing on each site. This would steer development towards locations most likely to produce successful, prosperous, sustainable communities. Additionally, priority should be given to building social and physical infrastructure before new housing as new towns have struggled in the past due to poor development sequencing. The government is also urged in exploring ‘strings’ of new neighbourhoods along railways, prioritising connectivity to transport networks. As well as creating a Zero Carbon New Towns Code to steer the design and construction of all new towns and embedding senior design leadership in development corporations. Where development corporations are formed to deliver new towns and new urban extensions, government and the New Towns Taskforce should take steps to appoint CEOs with strong design vision. No New Towns should be undertaken without senior design leadership in place at board level to ensure good design is prominent and accountable alongside other issues.
10. And lastly, support Construction and Architectural Innovation by establishing a regenerative design and construction innovation centre to grow architectural innovation capacity. An early priority should be the significant expansion of biobased material innovation and production which could drive low carbon housing delivery. The Building Research Establishment’s functions should also be reviewed by providing an independent centre for testing and accrediting building products.  Without this, barriers to innovation will remain too high for SMEs to develop and launch the low carbon materials and products the construction sector needs to transition away from fossil-fuel dependent development practices. The government should explore options for how existing organisations such as the Building Research Establishment might better ensure that vital new low carbon materials are robustly and efficiently certified.

That captures the first Part of the report which outlines the key 10 opportunities recommended by the Taskforce to address the underlying conditions that influence the design decisions shaping the success of neighbourhoods.

Now looking at the second Part of the report which presents five big questions about the demands and expectations of housing that, if addressed, could ensure that the government’s housing agenda delivers sustainable change for people and the planet. These consist of:

1. How many new homes are possible to build within the UK’s carbon budget - The Design Council Homes Taskforce recommends that the Government commissions research answering the question of how many new homes can be delivered within the UK’s carbon budget across various delivery scenarios. A critical question in delivering more construction while staying within the UK’s climate budget is how many new homes can be delivered without breaking British emissions obligations. This research must map the dependencies between the retrofit of the existing housing stock, new builds and the repurposing of empty buildings according to different decarbonisation scenarios and compare business-as-usual high carbon construction with the delivery potential of shifting to low carbon construction techniques. Building with the most sustainable techniques will mean the UK can maximise its housing delivery, but exactly what the tradeoff between quality of sustainable design and construction vs the total number of homes achievable within Britain’s carbon budget is not yet clear.
2. What spare capacity is there in the existing housing stock - Data shows that the UK’s housing stock is used inefficiently. According to the English Housing Survey, about 52% of owner occupied homes and 39% of all homes in England have at least two spare bedrooms. This surplus amounts to over 20 million underused bedrooms across the UK, far exceeding the number of people experiencing homelessness. But the data paints a complex picture. On the one hand there seems to be a high number of empty homes and bedrooms but many younger people are increasingly living with their parents into their twenties and thirties. Further research could help the government to identify where spare capacity exists, and how it can be unlocked to contribute to overall housing supply.
3. What kind of housing do we need - What types of homes, at what price points, what tenures, and in what locations does Britain need? As household compositions change with social norms, the typical set of standard new build home designs, sizes and tenures do not allow for the full spectrum of diverse UK communities. Considering demographic projections, it is important the government focuses construction where it will most effectively meet housing need. Delivering an oversupply of luxury housing while realising an undersupply of affordable homes will fail to increase overall affordability and connected social benefits. Research is needed to determine how much social housing is actually needed to enable councils to effectively manage temporary accommodation demands affordably.
4. How many repurposable empty homes and buildings are there in the UK? Where are they? What could they contribute to housing need? - Britain has a large number of empty homes and repurposable buildings which, if refurbished sustainably, could provide a significant number of high-quality homes to meet housing demand. The Taskforce recommends urgent research mapping the quantity, quality and geographic spread of empty properties to accurately assess the contribution retrofit can make to releasing refurbished homes into housing supply.
5. What do long-term population changes mean for housebuilding? Should we predict a contradiction of demand and over supply of housing as fertility rates fall? - Long-term population changes, particularly declining fertility rates, an aging population, affordability and migration may significantly shift housing demand in future decades. Determining what types of home Britain should build, and where, to meet these looming demographic changes is a complex challenge dependent on several interacting factors. Detailed demographic modelling is needed to help to build a clearer picture of the likely characteristics of Britain’s future housing demand.

That concludes the findings and recommendations made within the Design for Neighbourhoods report. Beyond this report, the Design Council continues to lead on new thinking and evidence for the value of design, influencing policy and supporting the UK’s transition to a net zero future. Its upcoming hosting of the World Design Congress in London in September 2025 underscores its ongoing commitment to “Design for Planet” and the global conversation on sustainable design.

The Design Council’s “Design for Neighbourhoods” report is a comprehensive roadmap for transforming UK housing policy and practice, ensuring that the government’s ambitious housebuilding programme delivers not just more homes, but better, greener, and more community-focused neighbourhoods.

To sum up what I discussed today:

• The Design Council, established in 1944, is an independent charity and became the national strategic advisor for design. Its latest "Design for Neighbourhoods" report seeks to reshape UK housing by addressing poor quality standards and promoting a balance between refurbishing existing homes and building new ones, all within environmental limits.
• The report proposes 10 major policy changes including setting carbon targets for construction, adopting a whole-stock approach to housing, establishing a National Design Review Framework, empowering decision making, reforming finance models taking a mission-led approach to support SME’s, implementing design policies to promote community cohesion, developing zero carbo towns, supporting construction and architectural innovation and appointing a neighbourhood design advisor.
• To support long-term housing reform, the report urges the government to address critical questions on housing needs, underused stock, demographic changes, and how many homes can be built within the UK's carbon budget—ensuring future housing is both sustainable and socially responsive.