The future of Building for Life

Amidst all the news about cuts this week, I want to make sure people are clear and confident about the future of Building for Life.

Building for Life is, and always has been a partnership. The principal partners are CABE, the Home Builders Federation and Design for Homes, but it has huge support across government and the development industry.

I think the cuts to CABE are worrying for the quality of the built environment, but it does not in any way halt Building for Life and all the partners are now working together to ensure the future of the initiative.

In the short term the Building for Life awards will take place as planned on the 18 November and CABE is working with housebuilders and local authorities to continue their current programme of design workshops.

For almost a decade, Building for Life has championed the design of new housing. I think about it as a coalition of people, from developers to local authorities, community groups to public agencies, campaigning together to drive up the quality of new homes and neighbourhoods and liveability across the country. And we’re making huge progress. This year has seen a record number of schemes achieving a Building for Life standard. We have just a few more individuals to train to complete a network of accredited Building for Life assessors in every local authority nationwide. And there's unprecedented interest from the industry in workshops based around Building for Life, with a number of companies starting to use it as a way to negotiate and assess design quality across their business.

Looking ahead to 2011, the partners are actively developing new ways to continue this work. We'll make sure we communicate this as soon as possible.

Wayne Hemingway MBE
Chair, Building for Life