Department for Levelling-up, Housing and Communities

A government-funded pilot programme to test aspects of the process and content of the NMDC, how it might be applied to different contexts, and the use of design coding in the current planning system.

Overview

In 2021, the UK Government published the National Model Design Code (NMDC) Publication was accompanied by a call to local planning authorities to be part of a government-funded pilot programme to test aspects of the process and content of the NMDC, how it might be applied to different contexts, and the use of design coding in the current planning system.

To assist with the learning, UCL was appointed to conduct a monitoring and evaluation of the NMDC Programme. The work was conducted in two stages. At the heart of the approach adopted by UCL were interviews with the pilot teams at interim (three month) and final (six month) stages of the programme. These were supplemented by analysis of the interim and final reports of the pilot teams and through analysing the content of the codes or other outputs produced by the teams.

Over the course of the monitoring and evaluation a wide range of issues were examined and structured across the four key phases of inputs, processes, outputs and anticipated impacts. The final report discusses all these phases and concludes with 21 lessons for local planning authorities charged with addressing the requirement in the 2023 Levelling-up and Regeneration Act to produce authority-wide design codes. The report was accompanied by a series of online case studies and led to a larger more reflective and theoretical paper in Progress in Planning.

This project ran from September 2022 to April 2023.

People and collaborators

Professor Matthew Carmona (Lead PI), The Bartlett School of Planning
Send Matthew an email
View Matthew's profile

Department for Levelling-Up, Housing & Communities
Visit the Department for Levelling-Up, Housing & Communities website

Planning Advisory Service
Visit the Planning Advisory Service website

Funder

Department for Levelling-Up, Housing & Communities
Visit the Department for Levelling-Up, Housing & Communities website

Outputs

Carmona M, Clarke W, Quinn B & Giordano V (2022) National Model Design Code (NMDC) Pilot Programme Phase One, Monitoring & Evaluation, London, DLUHC, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1083852/NMDC_M_E_final_report_v5.pdf

Carmona M (2023) Coding urban design, Constructing a wireframe for a place-focused urbanism, Progress in Planning, 176: 1-40 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305900623000363

See also case studies on the Planning Advisory Service website at https://www.local.gov.uk/pas/topics/design-codes/national-model-design-code-pilot-case-studies

Related links

Visit the Planning Advisory Service website
Follow Professor Matthew Carmona on X (formerly Twitter)
Follow The Bartlett School of Planning on X (formerly Twitter)
Follow The Bartlett School of Planning on LinkedIn

Go back to view all research projects

Photo by Matthew Carmona