Titled “Living with Beauty”, many expected the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission’s report to be widely focused on how to build beautiful communities and homes for residents across the country at scale. Instead we’ve found it to be very narrow in its scope, and while it does offer some sensible solutions, it ultimately presents the industry with a number of additional challenges to overcome, leaving both housebuilders and planning departments potentially facing a dilemma about their implementation.

While the report does include some sensible suggestions, our hope was that it would offer solutions that recognise the range of property types available when creating beautiful places to live, such as the use of detached, semi-detached and terraced homes. Instead, it proposes blanket recommendations that undermine the integrity of consumer desires and regional buying patterns.

While there is acknowledgement in the report that the architectural style preferences of housebuilders’ customers are relevant and important, the report does not do the same for the types of homes.

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