Michael Gove: Better residential designs may mitigate development opposition

• Too many planning applications are “indifferent” or “insipid”.
• Government hopes to have built 300,000 additional dwellings by middle of decade.
• Mr. Gove admitted there is “no magic solution” to the housing situation.

According to Michael Gove, there could be less opposition to new housing developments if there was a greater emphasis on the “heart and soul” of communities.

Too many planning applications, according to the secretary for levelling up, housing, and communities, are “indifferent” or “insipid.”

In the foreword of a paper by the center-right research group Policy Exchange, Mr. Gove made the remarks.

He is supporting the demand for a new architectural and urban design school.

By the middle of the decade, the government hopes to have built 300,000 additional dwellings.

However, Mr. Gove earlier stated that due to the recession and growing prices, it would be “tough” to fulfil the promise in the upcoming year.

“The thousands of people whose dreams of home ownership went up in smoke after the Tories collapsed the economy need a real strategy for new homes to be built,” said Lisa Nandy, the shadow housing secretary for Labour.

According to Mr. Gove’s assertion in the research tank’s paper, subpar design and upkeep are wasting some public places’ potential.

“Places must be at the centre of levelling up, but levelling up will also fail if places lack heart and spirit,” he stated.

“A lot of the resistance to new housing developments is frequently motivated by a worry that the quality of the new structures and locations generated will be subpar and harm nearby communities and properties.

“The public may be less likely to oppose it if a general improvement in the standard of design reassures them that this will in reality not be the case.”

However, Mr. Gove admitted there is “no magic solution” to the housing situation.

According to the Policy Exchange research, if there were “a generally higher quality of architecture and placemaking, then this may help disperse much of the aesthetic objections to additional housing,” the government should support a new “School of Place.”

Architects, planners, designers, engineers, and consultants would all be employed by the institution.

The government lowered its housing goals for local councils earlier this month after several Conservative MPs threatened to rebel.

The government now states that, despite Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s efforts to enact enforceable targets, “Housing targets remain, but are a starting point, with new flexibilities to suit local realities.”

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