Better planning will mean better homes, says housing minister

The house building industry has been accused of having a "blow and go attitude" by the minister for housing and planning.

Speaking at yesterday's (Wednesday) Building for Life conference in London, Lord Rooker said: "Better planning must bring us better homes, but this can only happen if the industry puts its full weight behind the agenda.

"Too often the industry shoots itself in the foot through what the Americans would describe as a blow and go attitude - build quick, build cheap, build average.

"The laggards are letting the side down and damaging the industry as well as places. A bit more care and attention to design as part of an active community engagement process can only help make development more attractive, more appropriate and more acceptable."

A manifesto for change, highlighting 10 key ways for the industry to design its way out of the current housing crisis, was launched at the conference.

They included the creation of more housing and urban regeneration companies with focussed remits to deliver strategic development sites for housing led mixed use development on brownfield sites; introduction of Transport Development Areas to allow housebuilders to develop at higher densities around significant transport nodes; and prioritising the planning reform.

Building for Life, the joint initiative run by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, the House Builders Federation and the Civic Trust, aims to raise the sights of volume house builders in order to improve the quality of new housing across the UK.