Design South East - Meeting Housing Demand in the South East

09 April 2022

An Influential Group

Design South East are an independent charitable organisation encouraging good design in the built environment organisation working entirely in the public interest, across the wider south east.  They have been in operation for 25 years.

Guildford Borough Council use the group extensively to review and comment on major developments in the Borough.  Recognising this Design South East has set up a Guildford Design Review Panel consisting or Architects and Planners.

The majority of their work is funded through fee income on a project-by-project basis. 

Roundtable on Housing Numbers

Design South East recently ran a roundtable discuss to review recent House of Lords report, Meeting Housing Demand. The discussion that included key practitioners in Surrey explored the challenge and opportunities of delivering on housing targets and ensuring high quality design.

Design South East have documented key points from the discussion which include:

  • Planning is political, which can hamper housing delivery
  • The complexity of the planning system is pulling planners away from housing delivery and design quality
  • Design is not just about beauty
  • Design and sustainability must be front-loaded in the planning process
  • Communities must be involved in housing delivery, but planners are lacking the resources to do this effectively

The Short Report can be seen here.

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