Architects are the guardians of good design, which not only contributes to a greater quality of life, but can also increase productivity and drive growth. This is vital to meeting the government’s objectives to create high-quality homes and places, improve building safety, and progress our net zero ambitions.
However, the architecture sector would benefit from investment to help reach its growth potential. These points are outlined in our submission to the Comprehensive Spending Review.
What is the Comprehensive Spending Review?
A Spending Review is the process the government uses to set all departments’ budgets for future years. This covers both the services the public uses every day, like the NHS, schools and transport, and how the government will invest in research, energy security and infrastructure to drive economic growth across the country.
What are we calling for?
Investing in the future of the built environment with fair funding for the next generation of architects
The next generation of architects must be appropriately skilled and competent. But schools of architecture face growing pressures. To ensure a pipeline of talent in the sector we recommend the Government:
- Invest an additional £25 million per year for architectural education to enable a greater focus on specialised and resource-intensive areas of study.
- Fund Level 7 architecture apprenticeships through the Growth and Skills Levy.
Boosting housing supply
We welcome the government’s ambition to deliver 1.5 million homes over this Parliament, with new social homes playing a central role. However, current funding models are not working with 1.3 million households on social housing waiting lists.
We need to think differently. Reviving public sector-led housebuilding is crucial to delivering the homes we need, where they are needed most. To achieve this we recommend the government:
- Adopt new and innovative ideas for financing social housing provision, such as the economic model outlined in our recent report, Foundations for the Future, to help build the homes we need.
Creating and maintaining well-designed places
Many local planning authorities (LPAs) lack the capacity to process planning applications efficiently. This - coupled with a lack of design expertise - means that much needed, high-quality develop is not brought forward in a timely manner. Local authorities must be empowered and resourced to promote and facilitate high-quality placemaking. By focusing on strategic, proactive, and holistic approaches to planning, we can shape our built environment to be welcoming, sustainable, and safe for all in the long term. We’re calling on the government to:
- Comprehensively resource LPAs to promote high-quality placemaking through their plan making, including investing in skills and capacity.
- Provide long-term funding for regional spatial planning to end stop-start investment cycles that waste resources and limit strategic development.
Delivering value for money – ensuring the built environment delivers on its promises
- The public sector should demand value for money on the buildings it procures. There is a known performance gap between environmental intent and delivered outcomes. Greenwashing has been rife throughout the built environment sector. Now we have a standard that provides a consistent, science-led approach to verifying whether buildings – new or existing – are net zero carbon aligned. To achieve this, we recommend:
- The performance outcomes required by the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard be the baseline for new public sector buildings.
- Ministerial support for Post Occupancy Evaluation to ensure it becomes a standard requirement in public sector capital funding programmes.
Creating warmer homes and cutting household energy bills
In the UK, 25% of carbon emissions are directly attributable to the built environment. With 80% of current buildings still in use by 2050, improving energy efficiency is crucial. Poor housing costs the NHS £1.4 billion annually, while wider societal costs, including poorer education and lost productivity, total £18.5 billion each year. More must be done to retrofit our homes. Therefore, we are calling on the government to:
- Implement a well-funded National Retrofit Strategy, which includes clear governance arrangements, targets and incentives.
- Introduce a revenue-neutral differential to Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) based on the energy efficiency of a home.
Read our full response.
