Before breaking for summer recess, housing secretary Robert Jenrick bestowed a gift on the property sector in the shape of the Building Beautiful Places plan along with publication of the National Model Design Code (NMDC). The launch is the culmination of a period of discourse that began in January 2020 with the Living with Beauty report, included the formation of a Design Quality Steering Group and concluded with a wider industry consultation to seek views on proposed improvements to the National Planning Policy Framework. The overall governmental objective was to empower local authorities and communities to create beautiful places to live with an enhanced emphasis on quality, design and improvement.

But while Jenrick’s gift came beautifully packaged, opening it to reveal the contents proved to be something of a disappointment; a modern case of the emperor’s new clothes. Despite thousands of consultation responses being submitted, the code launched this week remains largely unchanged from that unveiled months ago, when the industry was invited to share its views to inform a code that would work for the whole of England. On top of this failure to incorporate guidance from the industry, there also seems to have been a failure to acknowledge the societal backdrop against which this whole process has played out – namely a global pandemic.

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