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Opinion: Good design requires good designers and clients

Opinion: Good design requires good designers and clients

The government's National Design Guide for new housing is fundamentally flawed in its belief that regulation can deliver good design, writes Chris Brown.

Opinion: How cities can work for all

Opinion: How cities can work for all

Civic dialogue is needed to identify a city's key challenges and opportunities and lead to effective answers and delivery, writes Tim Williams.

No special planning treatment for homes built using modern methods, by Joey Gardiner

No special planning treatment for homes built using modern methods, by Joey Gardiner

Last week the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) made clear it will make no changes to the planning system to encourage the building of more homes using modern methods of construction. It comes despite compelling evidence that using such methods can significantly speed the delivery of homes, and a promise to consider reforms in the 2017 Housing White Paper.

Opinion: Look beyond the seaside to the maritime economy

Opinion: Look beyond the seaside to the maritime economy

To get a true picture of the UK's coastal communities, it is important to recognise the value and potential of their maritime economy, writes Iain Mackinnon.

Opinion: Redefine how high streets are owned and managed

Opinion: Redefine how high streets are owned and managed

We have an almost complete policy vacuum on active ground floor uses that are so important to generating social capital, wellbeing and community cohesion, writes Chris Brown.

Starter home policy may not be quite as ready to go as government thinks

Starter home policy may not be quite as ready to go as government thinks

August's announcement by housing secretary Robert Jenrick of new rules around shared ownership was probably most significant for the wider policy hints it contained.

Opinion: London's lessons in leveraging community benefit

Opinion: London's lessons in leveraging community benefit

An Australian delegation on a fact finding mission in London has been pleasantly surprised at the community benefit leveraged from the development process and the 2012 Olympics, writes Tim Williams.

Opinion: Putting the focus on housing design quality

Opinion: Putting the focus on housing design quality

The audit of housing design quality being led by Professor Matthew Carmona of the Bartlett School of Planning will provide quantitative evidence to inform policymaking, writes Chris Brown.

Opinion: A tale of two Conservative urbanists

Opinion: A tale of two Conservative urbanists

Tim Williams contemplates the track record of the UK's new prime minister and the qualities of the returning co-chair of a government-initiated commission.

Opinion: We have to take the likelihood of climate change seriously

Opinion: We have to take the likelihood of climate change seriously

Research and record temperatures are repeatedly reminding us of how our climate is changing, and we need to take this seriously when designing new places, writes Chris Brown.

Opinion: End of Help to Buy raises housing delivery questions

Opinion: End of Help to Buy raises housing delivery questions

By any assessment the government's doomed Help to Buy policy has had an extraordinary effect on the housing market.

Opinion: South Wales needs a long term plan for transport infrastructure

Opinion: South Wales needs a long term plan for transport infrastructure

The Welsh government's decision to drop plans for a relief road around Newport is sound, but South Wales still needs transport infrastructure and ways to fund it, says Tim Williams.


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