However, there is widespread disquiet that the housebuilding industry may not have the ambition, and willingness to embrace change, required to deliver both the quality and the quantity of homes to which government aspires. This is especially the case with the lower density urban extensions, typically on greenfield sites, which will continue to provide a large proportion of new homes nationally.

National planning policy already asserts that poor quality design should not be allowed. In this report, four architects, specialising in housing and placemaking, go further. They explain how the current planning system can be adapted to set a threshold for good quality urban design, with a quid pro quo for compliant housebuilders that speeds up the planning system. The outcome would be better quality design leading to more efficient use of land and an increase in supply.

Lots of housing, planning and design experts are pressing their advice on government. Why do we need yet another report?

The authors of this report are unusual in combining four decades of hands-on experience in the design and delivery of all kinds of homes throughout England with 20 years of research and publication on related issues. Furthermore, we include a recent past President of the RIBA, the former Head of Architecture at the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), and the chair of several local authority design panels, which review numerous current housing schemes. We therefore have a broad and detailed understanding of what makes successful places and why so much of today’s housing development falls short.

We also support and engage with others, including selected housebuilders and experts on the development management process, landscape design, design for movement, biodiversity and green infrastructure, to contribute suggestions for masterplanning and design code requirements to deliver quality through the planning system.