Last year, in a presentation on the National Model Design Code I used a personal example of the Bordeaux suburb of Mérignac. For 20 years we spent our summers there at the house of my wife’s cousin Cécile. She and her partner had bought two “flag plots”. I didn’t know the term either, but a French colleague explained that these are plots in the centre of a block accessed by a track between two frontage plots.

They had built their own home on one of the plots and the other was a massive garden. At one point we broached the idea of building a house on the vacant plot, but it was explained that this was a non-starter – not because anyone thought it a bad idea you understand – but because the Floor Area Ratio for the block had been met and, in a non-discretionary planning system, that was that. This was my message on design codes; they created certainty but not always the right outcome.

However my story is also relevant to the Bacon Review published last week following a request from the prime minister to recommend ways of scaling up self-build and custom housebuilding. Richard Bacon’s report includes six recommendations, of which more in a moment. It also opens with a quote from my recent book but I won’t let that sway me!

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