by jbs081310 f3 — August 16, 2010—Ninety-six percent of local British planning officers say that there are benefits from including design review in the U.K. planning system. Of these, 67 percent say that access to specialist expertise was the main advantage, according to a new report, Helping Local People Choose Good Design.
The report marks the end of the first year of the design review network, a unique affiliation between CABE, which is the British government’s advisor on architecture, urban design and public space, and the eight leading design review panels across England.
The report shows that in 2009-2010, 204 local authorities benefited from the design review network—almost two thirds of the authorities in England.
Despite the recession, the number of schemes coming to design review remained high. Overall, the design review network carried out 676 reviews, a third of which were for returning programs. CABE says this shows how the design review process operates as a continuous conversation, and suggests that previous experience of design review was positive.
The report also states that the cost of design review is only 0.005 percent of the value of the development reviewed, and that the service is most beneficial early in the design process.
Advice given by the Inspire East panel, for example, reportedly helped charity Disability Essex to make its new Centre for Disability Studies a third more energy efficient. Suggestions by the panel helped the charity generate income by selling surplus electricity to the national grid and rent commercial office space at better rates.
