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There should be a new simpler standards framework for housing, in return for a set of minimum national design standards for all new homes, according to a report from CABE.

Simpler and better: housing design in everyone’s interest argues that smarter regulation would give consumers a guarantee that homes and neighbourhoods are well designed everywhere.

The current mix of standards required by building regulations, planning policy and funders desperately needs rationalisation. CABE is proposing replacing this with a single set of clear requirements by which developments are designed, judged and developed through the planning system, and specifically identifying those that should be delivered through the building regulations.

Richard Simmons, CABE chief executive, points out that the maxim of the day is doing more with less, not simply doing less. “We all recognise that the current mix of standards is complicated, overlapping and inefficient. The industry needs a consistent set of standards - and the consumer and the community a guarantee of homes that are good enough.’

Minimum design standards for housing should clarify exactly what is required to meet environmental commitments and the basic needs of communities and residents. This would establish the basis upon which local authorities and communities can decide what works for their area, but below which developers would not be able to go.

Simpler and better draws on expert workshops run by CABE to explore the practical action and policy changes needed to transform housing design quality. Getting better design for new homes and the neighbourhoods in which they sit has been one of the more intractable challenges faced by government. The report analyses why the market alone is unlikely to deliver good housing design consistently in Britain. This is a combination of the culture and economics of housing provision and the particular ways in which town planning works and the industry is structured and financed.

Simpler and better also makes the obvious point that using good architects invariably drives up standards, but too few housebuilders employ this kind of talent or commission it routinely. It argues that publicly funded projects could require the selection of architects by competition.

More about housing standards 

Simpler and better: housing design in everyone's interest

Is it too much to believe that all new homes can be good enough everywhere? Why has this proved so difficult in the past and what can we do to change it?

Housing standards: evidence and research

A collection of the latest research on housing standards which  provides technical details and a comprehensive evidence base for anyone to draw from.