The Recession, Housing Quality and Urban Design

This paper assesses the impact of the recession on the delivery of design quality in England and Wales. It does so against the background of numerous positive policy developments as regards planning and design over the past decade, but the rather uneven delivery of better design outcomes. The focus is principally on housing development as the development sector with the most impact on the built environment, but other forms of development are also considered. Two brief case studies are presented to illustrate the short-term responses of developers to the credit crunch and their design implications, and then the policy responses of the New Labour government and their agencies to the crisis are critically examined. Future policy priorities and their potential impact on design quality are explored. The implications of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government responses to the recession, and their programme of dramatic cuts in public expenditure, are also considered.