Design quality may finally be on the government’s agenda but the test is whether anyone is prepared to do anything more than talk about it.

Last month’s MHCLG Design Quality Conference was worth doing but not for the obvious reasons. It is self-evident that there is limited value in assembling a large group of design professionals for a whole day to tell them what they already know, and a pity that a government department resorts to corporate sponsorship and the advertising that brings with it.

About half of the content was interesting and some was good. Heather Topel, the client for Eddington, North West Cambridge was the sort of project leader we’d all love to work with.