The Government have established the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission to champion beauty in the built environment. We have published a comprehensive response to the report and are implementing the vast majority of its recommendations. This includes embedding the principle of beauty in the planning system for the first time since it was created; publishing a new national model design code so that communities can demand well-designed local buildings; and establishing a fast track for beauty, where individuals and good-quality builders can see high-quality developments proceed at pace.

The developer community should engage with our national model design code, and local councils should bring forward their own version. My Department stands ready, with our new place unit, to support local councils to produce high-quality, compelling and locally popular design codes. We will be piloting that over the course of the year—perhaps his local council might like to be one of the pilot areas.