Planning officers back design review

Ninety-six per cent of local planning officers say that there are benefits from including design review in the planning system. Of these, 67 per cent say that access to specialist expertise was the main advantage.

These findings are part of a new report launched today, Helping local people choose good design. This marks the end of the first year of the design review network – a unique affiliation between CABE and the eight leading design review panels across England. It also shows that in 2009/10, 204 local authorities benefited from the design review network – almost two thirds of the authorities in England.  

Despite the recession, the number of schemes coming to design review remained high and was consistent with previous years. Overall, the design review network carried out 676 reviews. A third of the reviews were for returning schemes. This shows how the design review process operates as a continuous conversation while schemes evolve, and suggests that previous experience of design review was positive. The report also states that the cost of design review is only 0.005 per cent of the value of the development reviewed, and that the service is most beneficial early in the design process.

Advice given by the Inspire East panel, for example, helped charity Disability Essex to make its new Centre for Disability Studies a third more energy efficient. Suggestions by the panel helped the charity generate income by selling surplus electricity to the national grid and let commercial office space at better rates. The building, completed in 2010, is the first non-domestic PassivHaus construction to be completed in England and has already won awards.

Richard Simmons, chief executive at CABE, said: ‘The Decentralisation and Localism Bill will give local people much more influence on planning decisions. So if decision-making is being devolved to the local community it is vital that it has the design advice it needs.’

Notes to editors

• To download the link please use this link: http://www.cabe.org.uk/publications/helping-local-people-choose-good-design
• CABE is the government’s advisor on architecture, urban design and public space. As a public body, we encourage policymakers to create places that work for people. We help local planners apply national design policy and offer expert advice to developers and architects. We show public sector clients how to commission buildings that meet the needs of their users. And we seek to inspire the public to demand more from their buildings and spaces. Advising, influencing and inspiring, we work to create well-designed, welcoming places. www.cabe.org.uk
• Design review is a service that benefits people by improving the quality of architecture, landscape architecture and urban design, including the design of streets and public spaces.
• CABE’s design review panel was set up in 1999. It provides expert independent advice on the most strategic and significant schemes across England. It has conducted around 3,000 reviews to date.
• In August 2009, the eight panels and CABE agreed to form an ‘affiliated network’. This network sees the panels work together to ensure that schemes that are appropriate for design review are seen either by the CABE national panel or by one of the affiliated panels. The networked panels were identified by the chief planner in 2009 as a source of design advice for significant development projects in England.
• Eight affiliated panels and the CABE panel are covered by this report:
  • Opun, East Midlands
  • Inspire East, East of England
  • Ignite, North East
  • Places Matter!, North West
  • Kent Architecture Centre, South East
  • Creating Excellence, South West
  • MADE, West Midlands
  • Integreat Yorkshire, Yorkshire and Humber*
  • CABE, All England

*Panel established in January 2010.