Baroness Andrews urges developers and local authorities to make design a priority

Baroness Andrews, Lords Planning Minister, today urged developers and local authorities to take into account new guidance on design, saying “good design is an integral part of any new development.”

Her plea came as the Department for Communities and Local Government issued a circular advising on the requirements for design and access statements in planning applications.

Design and access statements will be required for most planning applications from 10 August 2006, with the exception of householder, change of use, and engineering and mining applications.

The circular Guidance on Changes to the Development Control System is available from the department's website.

Further practical advice concerning design statements has been published by The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment under the title Design and access statements: how to write, read and use them.

* Research into the findings of seven Design Coding pilot schemes was also issued today, showing that Design Codes, which set out clearly established local design principles, could increase the quality of new developments.