ABSTRACT
The critical question to ask of design policies in the ‘new generation’ of development plans is: will they improve the effectiveness of design control in England and Wales? Effectiveness has many dimensions, but at its heart is the question as to what extent the new policies will improve the quality of development that is given planning permission. In current parlance, how much ‘added value’ will design control produce, both for the community and the developer? Such matters are extremely difficult to measure at the best of times, not least because ‘other material considerations’ constantly intrude into every control decision. However, two additional factors make this an inopportune moment to assess effectiveness. First, only a very few plans have been in operation as statutory documents for more than a year or two, and second, the economic recession of the early 1990s, especially deep in the property sector, has severely limited both the number of planning applications and development completions, particularly of larger schemes. So any well-considered, fully researched verdict on the effectiveness of the new generation of design policies will have to wait several years.
