3. Agenda 1.Who we are 2.The critical issues 3.The tools we use now 4.How we could really work together www.designsoutheast.org

4. Who we are – A unique independent organisation – Supporting a better built environment – Through a range of client services – Providing a clear, constructive and consistent voice on design in the built environment – We receive no grant funding – A social enterprise, with clients in the public and private sectors – Delivering social value www.designsoutheast.org

5. & how we work – Through a strengthened full-time DSE team – Supported by an expert panel located throughout the greater south east – Working across the east and south east, at scale and predominantly on housing – Acting as a ‘third space’, facilitating dialogue, promoting collaboration and fostering quality www.designsoutheast.org

6. Advising on growth North Whiteley Urban Extension consisting of 3500 dwelling including local and neighbourhood centres, primary schools and a secondary school North Wokingham SDL a development of 760 dwellings Arborfield Garrison SDL an allocation for 3500 houses. A new community north of Fareham of around 6,000 houses plus employment Whitehill Bordon consisting of 4,000 new homes and 5,500 new jobs Ipswich Garden Suburb consisting of 3,500 new homes www.designsoutheast.org

7. The critical issues 1.A lack of understanding about the value design quality leading to permissions for low quality development – can we really risk continuing to devalue localities? 2.A lack of agreement about a quality threshold leading to excessive and/or time spent in the planning system - should we be deterring investment in this way – is there not a way of getting greater clarity and consistency? 3.How we engage with physical and social context – if opposition is the dominant stance is it not time to think maybe our approach is wrong? 4.A lack of risk taking in housing leads to homogeneity and a failure to complement Kent and Medway's historic and contemporary exemplars www.designsoutheast.org

8. How we can help 1.Provide design training to raise awareness of the value of design 2.Provide in house design advice to local planning authorities through 1-1s or surgeries 3.Offer pre-application design review and design dialogue to provide a clear voice on design quality and foster agreement on design principle 4.Foster a dialogue between communities, developers and local authorities about growth www.designsoutheast.org

9. Design training Built environment debate and knowledge sharing through conferences, seminars and roundtable Open training workshops to provide knowledge and develop skills Bespoke training programmes, helping to develop skills and promoting collaboration across organisations

10. Provide in house design advice a.1-1 desk-side design advice delivered by DSE to planning officers b.Design surgeries enabling planning officers to discuss concerns with DSE c.Design workshops to unlock issues and progress development www.designsoutheast.org

12. Pre-application design review and design dialogue A process of independent, expert design advice Delivered through a multi-disciplinary design panel At the early stages in the pre-application process Involving the promoter, the local planning authority and the panel Increasing clarity and consistency ww.designsoutheast.org

13. Design Review Signals that good design is expected Creates a forum for collaboration in the planning process Provides access to national & international design expertise Offers trusted, independent advice with public accountability Provides the highest quality of review ensuring that the advice will respected by Officers, Members and promoters Provides cross authority assistance when schemes span across other local authority boundaries ww.designsoutheast.org

14. Design review is cost neutral for a local planning authority We introduced charges for design review. We charge the promoter Charges are transparent and range from £4,025 for a single half-day design review to £8,050 for several reviews on one day Charging has not been a barrier to the development of design review - developers and housebuilders value professionally delivered design review For a fraction of the project cost, design review significantly impacts on the quality and the value of the product, and, when deployed early, it saves time and money in the planning system ww.designsoutheast.org

15. Building for Life DSE involvement in Building for Life goes back to its inception It continues to the present day through our Building for Life workshops and training workshops. We have used our design review expertise to develop a workshop based Building for Life assessment process Increasing demand from local planning authorities and house builders We have also developed a model of design review which uses the 12 questions in the new Building for Life as a framework ww.designsoutheast.org

16. With the Kent Design Network continuing to resolve issues 12th November an evening seminar to help you plan for quality through the local plan 21 st November a conference at New London Architecture to bring together local authorities from across the greater south east for a conference to debate how we shape growth 26 th November a half day seminar on transforming the high street and town centre

17. Our proposition A programme of awareness raising about the value of design A means of easy access to design advice for local planning authorities A design management framework for Kent and Medway based on consistent use of design review by all local authorities The use of collaborative tools and processes at the early stage in design evolution to facilitate agreement of design principles The continued strengthening of Kent Design as a means of bringing people together to raise the debate and promote collabortation

19. Our proposition We had Kent Design Guide We have the Kent Design Network We need a Kent Design Framework

21. 01634 401166 chris@designsoutheast.org martin@designsoutheast.org @DesignSouthEast www.designsoutheast.org