Government sets out its vision for world class places

The government has set out its vision for world class places with a new strategy on improving quality of place, World class places.

The built environment can be a source of everyday joy or everyday misery. The strategy sets out the practical steps the Government will be taking to build on achievements of recent years and do more to create prosperous, distinctive and inclusive places.

This includes a commitment to apply a minimum design standard to every public building programme. Later this year, secondary school design will have to meet a minimum design standard before funding is released, but now for the first time, healthcare facilities, railway stations, job centres and social housing will also have to meet minimum standards.

World class places is the first placemaking strategy since architect Richard Rogers published the findings of the urban task force, Towards an urban renaissance, ten years ago.  That report argued for the sustainable regeneration of towns and cities through making them compact, socially mixed and environmentally sustainable. It urged using derelict and brownfield sites. It sought to rebalance car based planning and promote integrated design-led housing with good public transport. The urban task force reconvened six years later to assess progress and published Towards a strong urban renaissance in 2005.

Rogers’ report has proved influential in many ways. The mass exodus to the suburbs has been reversed, with the population of inner city Birmingham increasing by 10%, and Bristol by 39%.  There have been impressive advances in the quality of urban design in Britain over the past decade. Sheffield’s newly designed ‘Gold Route’ and Peace Gardens, and Nottingham’s Old Market Square illustrate big improvements to public space in city centres. Great new public buildings have served to spark regeneration, with the Baltic in Gateshead, Tate Modern in London and The Lowry and the Imperial War Museum in Salford.

Investment in parks has also increased in the last ten years, and Home Zones and other initiatives have slowed and cut traffic in residential streets.

But challenges remain in 2009. The quality of new housing remains very uneven. One in six urban local authorities admit their green space is still in decline. People in deprived districts are six times less likely than those in affluent ones to describe their neighbourhood as ‘green’. Walking and cycling in towns and cities are not yet the norm, as they are in many places in Europe.

And there are two new priorities: using urban design to adapt society to climate change, and accommodating an ageing population.

The design of our streets and quality of green infrastructure, including green roofs, has become key to absorbing storm water and preventing flooding, and countering the heat island effect.

A growing number of older people are at risk of isolation. They rely more on the social interaction which comes from safe local parks and quieter streets; and low energy homes and locally sourced produce can stabilise their household costs.

To create the kind of places that can respond to these and other key issues, every public building and every public space must be well designed and well maintained.

Richard Simmons, CABE chief executive, believes that the new strategy, World class places, could transform the Government’s approach to placemaking:

"Until now, creating great places has been primarily about the interplay of housing, planning and public space”

“What we need now is an approach which works right across government and all the elements of our built environment – historic buildings, streets and parks, new public buildings and regeneration programmes. The trick will be to make sure that everything is connected, and everything is good enough.

“The commitment to a minimum design standard for every public building programme is enormously welcome. Every significant public sector project could also have the opportunity to be advised or reviewed by CABE”.

The strategy also includes a commitment to the introduction of a new indicator for local authorities to report on quality of place. So local authorities can assure local people that quality of place matters even more in a recession.

What else does the strategy include?

Further commitments include:

• New planning policy on heritage and green infrastructure
• New guidance on design of high streets and other non-residential roads
• Promoting and funding more user engagement in the design of new public buildings
• Strengthened regional support for local authorities and developers in order to improve quality of place.