Arm’s-length Office for Place to close after less than 18 months

It was announced in July 2023 that the Office for Place, previously a small team in the then Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, would become an arm’s-length body to be based in Stoke-on-Trent.

Mr Pennycook thanked the team and Nicholas Boys Smith, its interim chair, for their “exemplary work” and “significant contribution” to putting design and quality “at the heart of the housing supply agenda”.

Mr Boys Smith is the founding director of Create Streets, a thinktank that campaigns for “gentle density” in town planning. He was described as the previous Conservative government’s building design tsar.

He said he was “hugely disappointed” by the news. “In the, correct, dash for quantity there needs to be an independent voice for quality. Will that voice now be lost within Whitehall?” he asked.

Mr Pennycook said: “Alongside spending decisions taken at the Budget and the resetting of departmental budgets, the deputy prime minister and I have, however, concluded that support to improve the quality and design of new homes and places can be more efficiently and effectively delivered by the department itself.

“The Office for Place will therefore be closed down and the expertise of its staff redeployed within the MHCLG, across the country.”

Mr Pennycook said the government would update the National Design Guide and National Model Design Code in spring next year. He also said he intended to establish quarterly steering boards on design and placemaking to ensure “our work is guided by those with relevant professional and practical expertise”.

He said: “In taking the decision to wind up the Office for Place, the government is not downgrading the importance of good design and placemaking, or the role of design coding in improving the quality of development.

“Rather, by drawing expertise and responsibility back into MHCLG, I want the pursuit of good design and placemaking to be a fully integrated consideration as the government reforms the planning system, rolls out digital local plans and provides support to local authorities and strategic planning authorities.

“I also believe that embedding this work within MHCLG will allow experience to be better reflected in decision-making, as well as integrated within an existing delivery team in Homes England already focused on design and placemaking.”

Mr Pennycook said current Office for Place activities will continue, including support for “pathfinder” local authorities that received a share of £1m to produce design codes.

He added that £46m will be given to local authorities to train 300 graduate and apprentice planners, and the government’s New Towns taskforce has been asked to ensure that “design and quality are integral to its agenda”.