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Government Minister calls for improvement in planning and design of Britain's towns and cities

9th October 2008

Government Minister Iain Wright MP today called for an improvement in the planning and design of Britain’s towns and cites and stressed the importance of good quality public space.

The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Communities and Local Government said good design influenced people’s opportunities and aspirations but that it currently remained “an exception rather than the norm.”

Speaking at the Landscape Institute Conference on the theme of “Housing, Land Use and Community,” Wright said: “Building more houses is only part of what we want to achieve. Bad design has a profound impact on the whole community. We are talking about people’s lives, people’s opportunities, helping to shape people’s ambitions and aspirations.

He added: “I want to see houses properly planned, located in the right place with the right infrastructure with public spaces and parks integrated from the very beginning. These should not be added on as an after thought but should underpin the entire development and building process. Get the planning process wrong and you end up with soulless identikit apartments and rabbit hutches that become rat-runs and havens for crime with few places for children to play and adults to meet and socialise.

“There is increasing recognition that well-designed, well-managed public spaces are crucial to making neighbourhoods work and improving people’s quality of life. Landscape architecture plays a crucial role in the creation of well designed, sustainable places where people want to live and work. Good design should be at the start of the process and embedded throughout. There is still someway to go before we can say good design now comes as standard for all new developments. It seems to be the exception rather than the norm.”

Wright praised the Landscape Institute’s careers initiative – “I want to be a landscape architect” - designed to attract more people into the profession and added that partnership working between public and private sector was critical in regenerating communities effectively.

He said: “It is massively important that we address this shortfall [of landscape architects] as without it there won’t be enough people on the ground to put our visions and aspirations into practice.” Other speakers on the opening day of the conference included architects Carolyn Steel and Sir Terry Farrell and leading landscape architect Robert Tregay.