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Essex Design Initiative

Date of speech	9 November 2005

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Draft text of the speech - may differ from the delivered version.

Introduction

1. Thank you to Lord Hanningfield for the invitation. It is evidence of the civilised way the House of Lords works that although we're on different sides of the House we share many of the same values and assumptions. We are in close contact about many issues and we have already discussed the importance of good design in meeting the challenges presented by the people of Essex needing new homes.

2. Unusually for anyone who knows me, I have now to make if not a vow of silence, at least a vow of mitigation. You will know that parts of two of the Sustainable Communities Plan's Growth Areas are in Essex - Thames Gateway, and London Stansted Cambridge Peterborough - these were identified as places which have the capacity to meet some of the housing need in the wider South East.

3. This audience will also be only too aware that the East of England plan examination in public (EiP) opened last week.

4. This means that I must limit my comments today to the subject in hand - and a subject about which I feel increasingly passionate - design  - and in particular - the role that design has played and can play in the future  both in terms of Essex and its own ambitions - and in national terms. 

5. This is summed up in ODPM's own strapline - creating sustainable communities.  Nothing here, you note, about building houses for the sake of it; building over the countryside; or building soulless housing estates. Absolutely right.  What this means is that we intend to go with the grain of what people want and need - communities that are sustainable because they work:  because they have not just the good schools and health centres which are at the heart of a thriving and healthy community - but because they are desirable - even delightful places to live.  Places where people want to bring up their children - and where the next generation may also call home, too.

6. All that means that, increasingly, as we have to build for more households - reflecting a population that is not only growing older but also living in different ways - we have to pay close and increasing attention to the quality of the spaces and the way that homes are designed. Standards and expectations are rising all the time. People will simply not put up with the treeless, bleak estates of the past.

7. This is hardly a new message for this audience. Essex can say with pride that it was ahead of the game. People here not only realised that design was crucial to creating a sense of community - how people relate to where they live and how they perceive their local environment - they did something about it by producing the Essex Design Guide and today we are gathered to mark the launch of the latest edition.

Essex

8. Essex has a proud history of welcoming new people who want to live here - as WC Sellar and YC Yeatman claimed in 1066 and all that: Julius Caesar landed, like all other successful invaders of these islands, at Thanet.   And as a county you are second only to Kent in size! I am sure there is some healthy rivalry across the estuary. Maybe I shouldn't get involved in such matters.

9. You also know rather more than most about sustainability. Colchester is the oldest town in the UK, and you can't get much more sustainable than that. But Essex has always been a county that has embraced and welcomed change with, not least, a history of new town building. The New Towns like Harlow and Basildon not only helped relieve pressure on post-war London, but also provided an important opportunity for architects and planners to provide high standards of living in a modern environment.

10. We are now seeking to regenerate these New Towns - in Harlow plans are being drawn up to spend £10 million on regenerating neighbourhood centres and exploiting urban capacity for new housing within the town, and on part-funding an innovation centre. As part of the scheme we will provide extra funds - over and above the £10 million - for Harlow to access CABE advice, ensuring the resulting developments are of the highest design quality.

11. Agencies like CABE and English Heritage have a vital role to play in supporting local authorities in their attempts to deliver design excellence.

12. These organisations quite rightly stress the importance of respecting the local context - as the new homes built by the Guinness Trust at Jaywick Sands demonstrate.

13. Projects like the regeneration of Harlow and Jaywick Sands continue a fine local tradition of concentrating on the importance of design. And that tradition goes back now over 30 years. There can be few town planners who are unaware of the importance of "The Essex Design Guide for Residential and Mixed Use Areas" that first appeared in 1973, published by Essex County Council.

14. It not only set new standards within this county - being rapidly adopted by planning authorities and accepted by the development industry; but was also recognised at home and abroad as an example of best practice.

15. So after over 30 years, we are here to celebrate that standard and what it signified, and launch the new deign guide and a new Urban Place Supplement. Significantly, this will apply to schemes above 45 dwellings per hectare.

16. This recognises that it is important to build at higher densities but it is equally important to ensure high quality design. For a government which is committed to providing more houses in the future, to make up for failures to build enough in the past, that is a powerful and confident statement.  And we welcome it.   

17. We must be determined to learn from the mistakes of the past - design must deliver what people want not what planners think they want.

18. The significance attached to the guide underlines the critical and positive role of the Local Authority. I am delighted that we are meeting in Chelmsford where the local authority was awarded Beacon Council status in 2003/4 for Quality in the Built Environment, and whose planning department especially were praised in the CABE Housing Audit 2004.

19. As schemes such as Beaulieu Park - which was strongly influenced by the Essex Design Guide - and Willow Court - which saw a volume developer adapt their original plans to suit the local context - demonstrate, Chelmsford Borough Council has a sophisticated and well established approach to achieving high quality design in new residential development.

20. Such strong and effective leadership from local authorities will be essential to the creation of sustainable communities.

Sustainable Communities

21. Sustainable communities are places where people want to live and work, now and in the future. They are sustainable because they have the social infrastructure and opportunity people need to feel they belong and can commit to making a community work; they are sustainable because they have the economic viability to ensure that housing needs match skill and labour market needs, and that there are opportunities which match the aspiration of the young as well as the needs of the old; they are environmentally sustainable because they fit with the wider ecology; they protect and enhance our natural environment in a way that will adapt to future needs as well as manage current needs responsibly.

22. All this means that design is not only desirable; it is a key and essential component of success.

23. A well-designed building not only has the wow factor, but it builds up to the technical limits in terms of minimal impact on the environment and maximum use of modern construction methods. 

24. Two of the current major technical challenges in terms of design, which I am sure were not as high a priority 30 years ago, are energy and water conservation.

25. Projects such as Cala Domus, the latest phase of the award winning Newhall development in Harlow demonstrate how integrating sustainability features into the design of new homes can help achieve high ratings for energy conservation and water recycling. Careful attention to the site layout has maximised passive solar gain, reducing the energy needed for heating. And incorporating photovoltaic panels into the design of the schemes residential tower not only generates sustainable energy but also helps to create a distinctive identity for the development.

26. So design can help us build in an energy efficient way - it can also ensure that fixtures and fittings minimise impact on the environment.

27. That is the practical side of design but there is also the aesthetic side  obviously these two things must go hand in hand - look at the plans for the new visitor's centre on Rainham Marshes.

28. Last week I spoke at the RSPB annual parliamentary reception and was thrilled to find out about the centre there.

29. Not only will this be a beautiful building, but it also uses smart design features to both protect it from crime and vandalism and to make it environmentally sustainable.

30. Yet this is a flagship building - we need to find ways of making such quality of design commonplace and more widely applicable.

Design and Planning

31. At ODPM we are intent on getting the design message across. As I travel around the country I am privileged to see projects like the Sheffield Peace Gardens and other wonderful examples of how the public realm is improving in cities across the country. Through the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders projects such as Southerly Owlerton Area Regeneration - which has developed a new approach to remodelling the public realm - I see how investment in parks and good design is driving regeneration. And awards such as the Housing Design Awards and Building for Life celebrate the design led success of developments such as Staiths in Gateshead.

32. Design coding is currently being piloted across the country to see if this is a way of making design and planning go hand in hand. We know that improved planning can help make communities more sustainable - we need to convince more planners and developers that design is a key component of any sustainable community.

33. But improving the quality of design must also be driven by community demand too - and there is increasing evidence of a very conscious desire to see better design and a positive response to exciting new buildings - just think of all those people who, during last year's London Open House, queued for five hours to get a look inside 30 St Mary's Axe - Norman Foster's 'Gherkin'.

34. We have introduced reforms to the planning system that will put the community at the heart of the planning process. People will be involved in helping to create the sort of places they want to live in - cleaner, safer, greener communities.

35. I am certain that they will put design high up their list of priorities. They will want to be inspired by where they live - and not just the look of their homes but how the community space functions and how different components of their community connect up with each other. 

36. Connectivity is not just a question of getting from A to B - but how places function. Communities need jobs, education, health centres, shops, community centres, leisure facilities but all these things need to be connected up.

37. Delivering all of this will be dependent on design - it is a tall order and requires leadership at the local level. That is why I wanted to come here to pay respect to what Essex County Council are seeking to achieve.

Conclusion

38. We do face major challenges in terms of the needs of local and national communities. Housing markets differ - we have to make up for lost ground, literally, through housing and planning systems - and need to plug the affordability gap which means that in 20 years time there will only be 30% of 30 year olds who can afford their own home. 

39. Of course I can not pretend that there is not a degree of controversy about the number of homes we need to build - and as I said earlier that number is currently under discussion, so I will not be drawn into discussions about that process - but whatever the outcome of those discussions no one doubts that more homes are needed.

40. And no one doubts that it is not just about homes. 'The environment' starts at the door step. Indeed, it starts inside the home with the way we use our own resources, But not just homes - when people walk out of their front door they want to feel a sense of connection - a sense of community.

41. One of the things that connects a community is a sense of ownership, a sense of identity, a sense of place, and a sense of pride. Pride in the character of the community - and in knowing that local people have been involved in shaping how their neighbourhood works.

42. Good design is the key to this - not only in what your home, the street furniture, the open space and community facilities look like - but also how they function - how places can be made better for people today and in the future so that future generations want to and are able to live in Essex.

43. Thirty years on - the Essex Design Initiative has a vital task. It is building on past achievements and I am sure it will help to make the Essex of the future as sustainable as in the past. This is an important task. I am looking forward to hearing more about it this afternoon.