For as long as I can remember we have worried about the design of new homes. Not the homes that win design awards, or feature in the pages of Building Design. It is easy to get distracted by the housing that we see and to forget that we know next to nothing about most new housing being built up and down the country.

So, on the basis that you shouldn’t criticise something before gathering the evidence, Cabe published a National Housing Audit in 2006 looking at schemes built in the previous five years. The report grabbed headlines because, as the then Cabe director later recalled, “the quality of new housing was shocking”. Less than one in five schemes were rated “good” or “very good” and 29% were so bad that under government guidance they should have been refused planning permission.

In the years of recession since, the emphasis has been on the number of homes built rather that the quality of design. However with the imminent publication of the Building Better Building Beautiful Commission’s report the focus is turning back to quality. It therefore seems like a good time to rerun the audit and see how we are doing. Hence the publication today of the National Housing Audit.

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