Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook and Office for Place interim chair Nicholas Boys Smith Source:&nbsp House of CommonsThe Office for Place, the government body set up in 2021 to champion good design and placemaking, is to be scrapped, housing minister Matthew Pennycook has announced In a statement made today (Tuesday, 12 November) in the Commons, Pennycook announced that the arms-length body would be dissolved and its staff reabsorbed back into the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).He said it was being wound up in order to make housing design and placemaking more efficient and fully integrated.In its place, the minister said he would be setting up quarterly steering boards to support the delivery of more high-quality, well-designed homes with expert design and placemaking guidance, which he said would be particularly relevant to new and larger sites including new towns.AdvertisementThe Office for Place was set up in the wake of the 2020 Living With Beauty report by the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission, which was co-chaired by Nicholas Boys Smith, founding director of pressure group Create Streets. Boys Smith was then appointed as the Office for Places interim chair.Boys Smith was one of a small number of candidates who had been interviewed for the position of permanent chair along with former RIBA president Ben Derbyshire and property expert and broadcaster Kunle Barker. The candidates had been left in limbo over the outcome since March.The body had continued operating since Julys general election with Boys Smith acting as interim chair. Labour initially said it planned to retain both the Office for Place and the role of chair.Boys Smith was paid 500 per day for a two-day week in this role, equating to 52,000 between September 2023 and September of this year. The AJ understands the decision to scrap the office came as a surprise to the candidates.Pennycook said: I would like to offer my sincere thanks to the interim board, led by Nicholas Boys Smith as chair, and the Office for Place team for their exemplary work on this important issue.AdvertisementIn putting design and quality at the heart of the housing supply agenda and establishing the principles of design coding and embedding them in practice across the planning and development sectors, Nicholas and the team have made a significant contribution.Pennycook said that, following the resetting of departmental budgets, he and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner had concluded that support to improve the quality and design of new homes and places can be more efficiently and effectively delivered by the department itself.The minister insisted the government was not downgrading the importance of good design and placemaking, or the role of design coding in improving the quality of development. He added: We want exemplary development to be the norm not the exception.He said: Rather, by drawing expertise and responsibility back into MHCLG, I want the pursuit of good design and placemaking to be a fully integrated consideration as the government reforms the planning system, rolls out digital local plans and provides support to local authorities and strategic planning authorities.He said the decision would not affect wider government commitments to Stoke-on-Trent, where a headquarters for the Office for Place was being established, including the 19.8 million the city had been promised in Levelling Up funding.Elsewhere in his speech, Pennycook said the MHCLG intended to update the National Design Guide and National Model Design Code next spring, and reaffirmed the governments commitment to continue to bolster design skills and capacity through the 46 million package of capacity and capability support provided to local planning authorities.'Without the Office for Place we must hope that design quality is not forgotten'Former RIBA president Ben Derbyshire Without the Office for Place we must hope that design quality is not forgotten in the new homes that the government has committed to build, and in the re-use and renovation of existing buildings it must also deliver if the nation is to meet its climate commitments.The New Towns Task Force has been asked to ensure that quality and design are integral to its agenda, and it does have an architect amongst its number.Its good to see that Office for Place personnel are to be brought back into MHCLG where quarterly Steering Boards on design and placemaking are intended to ensure work is guided by those with relevant professional and practical expertise.Any future Office for Place equivalent must eschew populist rhetoric and follow in the footsteps of the late, lamented CABE as a champion of good, contemporary design. It provided excellent guidance, research and exemplary design review processes. Local planning departments still desperately need an accessible central resource such as that.Now we must think again.2024-11-12Anna Highfieldcomment and share