Jenrick calls for high-quality homes to be the ‘norm’

The housing and communities secretary has called for high-quality homes and tree-lined streets to be ‘norm, not the exception’, following the launch of a new report.

The final report by the Building Better Building Beautiful Commission is due to be published later today (30 January) and will contain more than 130 recommendations to improve the design and future of new developments.

The report will recommend planting millions of trees over the next five years, as well as opening old canals and supporting every home to have its own or access to a fruit tree.

It will also recommend speeding up the planning process for beautiful buildings through a new ‘Fast Track for Beauty’ rule for councils.

The housing and communities secretary, Robert Jenrick has already welcomed the publication of the commission’s final report and said ‘high-quality homes must become the norm, not the exception’.

‘I am interested in the proposal of a “fast track for beauty”,’ said Mr Jenrick.

‘Where individuals and developers have put in the time to create proposals for well-designed buildings, which use high quality-materials and take account of their local setting, it can’t be right their planning applications are held up,’ he added.

‘I too want to see a return to planting more trees. We set out in our manifesto that we will expect all new streets to be lined with trees and are working to make this commitment a reality.’

The Commission’s interim report was published in July 2019 and urged local authorities to involve the public at an earlier stage in the design process, rather than later at the planning stage.

Yesterday (29 January), Mr Jenrick also announced the government would help guarantee millions of pounds in new loans for small and medium sized building firms.

The £1bn guarantee scheme set-up by the government ensures enough credit is available to allow smaller housebuilders to enter the market.

In an announcement to Parliament, he confirmed the British Business Bank’s ENABLE Build Programme will shortly begin guaranteeing millions in new loans for local, independent construction businesses to deliver new homes.

‘Today I am giving the green light to a scheme that will help to fix this. Supporting £1 billion of new loans so that local builders can kickstart building, level up the country and turbocharge the housing sector,’ he said.

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