Housing and Regeneration Bill

I am glad to have the opportunity to contribute to the Committee’s debate on these amendments. I have put my name to a couple of amendments tabled in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Howarth of Newport, because I believe that this is an extremely important issue. As was made very clear in the debate that he led at Second Reading—the noble Baroness will recall that there was a considerable amount of interest in these issues—a number of us are anxious that it is critical to include from the outset an emphasis on design quality in the Bill. That is not least because of considerable concerns about sustainability, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, has just referred. Unless high quality designers are involved in the next generation of housing, we are in danger again of creating inbuilt obsolescence in the housing stock of this country, which is extremely damaging not only in the short term, but also in the longer term. From my experience of working with and for architects, I know how attitudes have changed even in the professions in recent years. In the 1960s, you built for then and now, and if it had to be replaced within the lifetime even of those architects, that was acceptable. Given the concerns that there are about the extent to which energy is used wastefully not only in obsolete buildings, but also in the regeneration, removal and replacement of obsolete buildings, we cannot do that any longer. It is not carbon-neutral. Construction techniques are extremely expensive in terms of energy and in other ways. The Minister may recall that at Second Reading I referred to my work on the ““long life, loose fit, low energy”” project when I was working for the Royal Institute of British Architects. It has now come of age, as many Members of the Committee on both sides will agree. That is why it is critical that, in laying down the parameters and the criteria by which we expect the agency to operate, there is emphasis on design quality in the Bill. Designers today are concerned about long life, loose fit and low energy. It is extremely important to have that written firmly in the Bill. Sustainable development is in the Bill and it has a very high priority in the Explanatory Notes, but unless it is explicit that we recognise that design quality is a realistic expectation, we are missing a very important opportunity. I am delighted to support the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, who has been the pioneer in these matters.