On Friday 19th February the House of Lords Select Committee on National Policy for the Built Environment released their report Building Better Places. Professor Matthew Carmona acted as Specialist Advisor to the Select Committee.
The report sets out a blueprint for moving design and place quality to the top of our national policy agenda. At its core is a recommendation that, as a nation, we need to aim higher in how we plan, design and manage our built environment and that the leadership and ambition to do this needs to begin with Government. The report also argues that local authorities need to be empowered and entrusted to shape their built environment locally and, working with their private and community partners, need to be more proactive in how they plan for and actually deliver change, for example new council housing.
Matthew Carmona commented "Too often as a nation we have focussed on the quantity of development and the speed of our regulatory processes, and whilst these matters are important, they should not be at the expense of a clear vision of the sorts of places and communities that we wish to see. Building Better Places, argues for a place centred approach to policy at national and local levels and this has to be right”.
The report can be downloaded here:
National Policy for the Built Environment Committee - UK Parliament