Will the government be brave on beauty?

By David Blackman2021-07-20T08:00:00

Housing minister Robert Jenrick will today outline new national design codes, responding to the Building Better, Beautiful Commission’s Living with Beauty report. But what are the brave decisions ministers will have to make?

During a long and lucrative publishing career, Richard Desmond has never been afraid to ruffle feathers. And that tradition continues on the Isle of Dogs, where local planners have fiercely resisted attempts by an offshoot of his company, Northern and Shell, to redevelop its redundant printworks.

But Robert Jenrick, secretary of state for housing, backed the plans last month, overturning a planning inspector’s ruling that it should be refused because it was out of scale with the surrounding, low-rise neighbourhood. The secretary of state judged that concerns about the scheme’s design should be outweighed by the 1,524 homes that it would deliver.

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