“Esther McVey rounds on architects and planners” Headlines are, of course, designed to catch our attention. But this one, published recently in BD’s sister magazine Housing Today, was simply telling the truth.

In the foreword to The Duty to Build Beautiful, a collection of 13 essays on how to build beautiful housing, published by right-wing think tank Policy Exchange, Esther McVey let rip: “…beauty has been neglected in policy-making for too long and this had allowed too many of our proud towns to be scarred by architects and planners who have no regard for what local residents want.”

It’s a master class in how to disenfranchise the two professions that best understand the capacity of good design and placemaking to enrich people’s lives (and only has praise for developers). The report itself is much more interesting. The authors are diverse and their essays well-balanced, provocative and more left-leaning than you might expect.

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