Building for life assessments

The Plymouth Design Panel promoted the highest possible quality of design in the city. The panel no longer meet but we make use of the regional design panel and other techniques to ensure that the quality of design remains an important consideration.

Core Strategy Target 4.3

The completion of at least four Plymouth Design Panel meetings every year to consider major proposals and strategic design related strategies.

This target has been superseded.

The Building for Life Assessments provide a far more informative assessment of the design quality of significant residential developments and now replace Core Strategy target 4.3.

Building for Life Standards Achieved graph [36KB]

Building for Life is the national standard for well-designed homes and neighbourhoods. It is a public/private initiative led by the Commission for Architecture and Built Environment (CABE), the Home Builders’ Federation and Design for Homes. The 20 Building for Life criteria embody the partners’ vision of what housing developments should be – attractive, functional and sustainable – based on national policy, guidance and best-practice.

The Council has embedded these quality assessments throughout the planning process:

1. An initial pre application 'health check' to address design issues at the earliest stage.
2. A further assessment at the determination stage.
3. A final formal assessment (the basis of this indicator) on completion of the development.
   

Ten major developments were completed in 2010 to 2011 and of the 367 dwellings on these sites, 84 per cent were assessed as being of above average quality i.e. good (with a score of at least 14 out of 20) or very good (scoring 16 or more).

The number of developments scoring above average has continually improved, from 2008 to 2009 when only 53 per cent were of above average quality, and 66 per cent in the following year. This improvement reflects measures (in addition to the ongoing quality assessment checks) that the Council has taken to promote better design - through the use of site planning statements, and with the formal adoption of two Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs), one on design and one on development guidelines.

The Council’s achievements in 2009 to 2010 were nationally recognised in the 2010 Building for Life Awards. More Gold (very good) Standards were awarded to Plymouth than any authority in the country, as validated by independent Building for Life judges.

This page of the annual monitoring report was last updated December 2011.