New Builds
Why new homes don't measure up

More than 80% of new homes don't measure up to design standards, according to a new report. The result is a mass of "nowhere homes" that are costly in the long run and could be storing up social ills.

Homes built for nowhere but found everywhere - bland, boring and monotonous. Not the most inspiring description of the majority of new homes built in the UK, but it's how design experts sum them up and a new report suggests they have a point.

A staggering 82% of new homes built over the last five years aren't well-designed and fail to measure up to the building industry's own benchmarks, says the first national audit of new private housing design. Nearly a third are so poor they wouldn't have got planning permission as they stand.

Home buyers are getting a raw deal concludes the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (Cabe), which carried out the audit.

Among the biggest design crimes are:

• homes aimed at families with nowhere for children to play;
• windows looking out onto brick walls; and
• poorly lit areas.

Such errors don't mean a house is unsafe or will fall down, so why should the average person care? Because bad design impacts on the daily lives of everyone living in the area, say experts. Bad design has even been implicated in the current obesity epidemic.

"Bad design impacts on so much," says Cabe spokesman Matt Bell. "From crime, with badly lit areas attracting anti-social behaviour, to a high doorstep making it hard for you to get a push chair in and out. All these things affect how nice a place is to live and how much people enjoy their homes."

Good design does not cost more
The blame, he says, rests with everyone involved in the building process. Too many of them have an enduring misunderstanding of design. Most common is the idea that good design costs more money and is only achieved through expensive materials. The opposite is true, he says.

"If bad design creates problems, money has to be spent to try and sort them out," says Mr Bell. "It's the taxpayer who foots the bill when it come to painting over graffiti or funding clubs because young people have nowhere to meet and socialise.

"Good design doesn't cost more money, it's not about using the finest Italian marble instead of tarmac, it's about common sense and attention to detail."

It is the East Midlands that tops the audit's list of shame. Only one housing scheme is rated very good, none are rated good and more than half were assessed as poor. The quality of some developments is so low they simply should not have been given planning consent, says Cabe. The South West and South East come out on top.

Part of the problem is that many developments are not designed by architects but a property company's in-house team, whose priorities are often different to the home buyer. A big name might be bought in to design a prestige site, but not on an ordinary project.

Compromise

"You end up with average houses for the average Joe," says Mr Bell. "It is old properties that are seen as having character. New builds should be desirable, attractive, well-designed, eco-friendly, contemporary buildings. They should be the homes that are sought after."

Progress has been made in recent years that is not necessarily reflected in the audit, says the Home Builders Federation (HBF). But it agrees that with so many people involved in the process of building a house - from council planners to the Highways Agency - design is often compromised.

"Too often design has been dictated by compromises within the planning process rather than the singular pursuit of excellence," says spokesman Stewart Baseley.

The government has also realised how dire the situation is.

Housing Minister Yvette Cooper is now calling for a "revolution in housing design", putting it at the heart of planning policy. Just as well as it is planning for one million new homes in the next 10 years.

Cabe agrees things are beginning to change. The expectations of people in the process - from planners to home buyers - are beginning to rise.

The biggest difference would be if well-designed projects could be accelerated through the planning process, a real incentive for all builders to use good design, it says.

All the big building firms are capable of good design. They have all won at least one design award for a development in the UK, says Cabe. They just have to make sure all their projects could be award winners.

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