ROOF Blog

The Homes and Communities Agency has appointed six industry experts to provide independent advice on design and sustainability. The group will provide an impartial annual review of how the HCA performs and how it can improve its policies and procedures in standards of design, including sustainability in development.

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and CABE have announced they are teaming up to improve the design quality of new homes, following the publication of a survey into the design of new affordable housing. The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and CABE have announced they are teaming up to improve the design quality of new homes, following the publication of a survey into the design of new affordable housing. The findings showed nearly that 61 per cent of housing schemes were average and 18 per cent good or very good, compared with 21 per cent assessed as poor including a ‘lack of distinctiveness’ and having design that ‘does not correspond to its context’. The report recommends closer working between registered social landlords (RSLs) and local planning authorities, and enforcing minimum design standards. In a joint statement the HCA and Cabe said: ‘The HCA will continue to promote high standards of quality in all the housing it funds… CABE will continue to support the HCA and RSLs across the country to make this a reality.’

The Existing Homes Alliance, a coalition set up to tackle emissions from older homes, has written an open letter to the Chancellor urging him to support green housing refurbishment in the Budget. It wants a cut in VAT and grants to stimulate spending on domestic energy efficiency.

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) has written a building design guide to improve standards when the market recovers. It argues that the recession can offer new models of house building based around longer-term investment, a stronger role of the public sector and more variety of tenure.

The UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC) has published guidance for the property industry to boost biodiversity in the development process. The UK-GBC argues that the development and refurbishment of buildings can improve the ecological value of a site. The point of planning and design offers the greatest opportunity to incorporate biodiversity, the report says.

Switching public spending from ‘grey’ projects such as roads and airports to ‘green’ schemes creating parks and allotments would save the government millions of pounds, improve health, cut climate emissions and create jobs, Natural England and Cabe (the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) warn. Cabe criticises local authorities and argues that few cities are taking climate change seriously. Cabe said the greening of the urban spaces would deliver ‘multiple benefits’ and create places where people want to live.

Rackheath, the eco-town proposal backed by local authorities in Greater Norwich, has emerged as the front runner to make the government’s final eco-town shortlist. Of the 12 schemes on the shortlist it is the only one assessed as grade A, the sustainability appraisal published yesterday said. The majority of the sites are graded B and would be suitable for an eco-town ‘subject to meeting specific planning and design objectives’, with one location, Weston Otmoor, rated grade C and only likely to be suitable with ‘substantial and exceptional innovation’. The appraisal was published along with the planning policy statement, setting out the green standards for the new developments. 

A zero carbon eco-house has been built based on design from the Middle Ages. The framework uses timbrel vaulting, a medieval technique from 14th century Spain, that creates a lightweight curved roof which retains heat. The roof has been covered with earth and plants, to maintain the inside temperature. Modern technologies, such as solar panels and triple glazing complete the design. The house comes at a price, though – it took a year to build and cost the owner £800,000.

The Conservatives have unveiled a plan to tackle social housing waiting lists by bringing empty homes back into use. Tory leader David Cameron pledged to make it easier for social landlords to use empty properties to house homeless families. Plans include ‘partially’ suspending the design and quality standard requirements while social tenants renting the homes would be given short-term tenancy agreements of between three and five years with an option to buy to enter into shared equity deals. There are an estimated one million empty homes across the UK.

An unreleased report by Cabe for the Homes and Communities Agency has found that most publically subsidised housing is no better designed than private housing. Only 18 per cent of new social housing meets a good or very good design standard, with four-fifths of the remaining homes average, poor, or very poor. The findings echo a study of private housing, which found that exactly the same number of houses were average, poor, or very poor. The government has denied that it delayed the release of the findings because they were ‘politically inconvenient’.