Prime minister Theresa May and housing secretary James Brokenshire need to provide council planning departments with better resourcing and more authority if the government’s aspiration for high design quality in its new-homes push is to be realised, RIBA has warned.

The government yesterday published its updated National Planning Policy Framework – the bible for determining the acceptability of new development – which is geared to stepping up the delivery of new homes above 300,000 units a year by the mid-2020s.

Brokenshire said he was “clear that quantity must never compromise the quality of what is built”, and that the new rules reflected that balance.

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