Cabe and RIBA plan review of 20,000 schemes a year

The UK’s leading architecture and planning bodies are plotting a massive expansion of the design review programme to clamp down on poor design on large schemes.

The leaders of the RIBA, Cabe, the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Landscape Institute are proposing a significant reform of the way the planning system assesses the quality of designs.

At the moment, design review panels set up by Cabe analyse about 500 planning applications a year to see if they meet good design standards.

Cabe set up this process in 1999. Since then, the 30 panellists have made criticisms of several large schemes, including Berkeley Homes’ Woolwich Arsenal development, which have led to design changes.

However, the bodies are considering a process in which all major applications would be reviewed as standard. This could involve as many as 20,000 applications a year. It is not yet decided if Cabe would run the reviews or merely set standards for local review panels.

Sunand Prasad, the president of the RIBA, said the groups were considering whether a statutory role for design review within the planning process was needed.

He said: “It’s possible. By the time the plan is launched we will have the details sorted out.”

He said the bodies had jointly commissioned work to scope out how the process would operate. Issues such as how it might be paid for are still to be decided.

Prasad said: “The planning system needs a lot more resources to be able to do what it’s being asked to do. We want to offer the design review system to all local authorities.”

Richard Simmons, chief executive of Cabe, said: “We’re not talking about design review for all housing projects. We’re talking about design review for all projects of a certain complexity, judged according to certain criteria.”

The plan builds on proposals by John Callcutt, former chief executive of Crest Nicholson, in his review of housing delivery last autumn. He said there

should be a national review process to advise councillors on design quality. Yvette Cooper, the housing minister at the time, rejected this as undemocratic.

Rab Bennetts, director of architect Bennetts Associates, welcomed the proposals. He said: “If you look at the erratic nature of planning decisions across the country, we need something that gives some consistency.”

However, he added there was a danger that the quality of the review panels might be compromised by rapid expansion.