No more toxic assets

CABE has been warned to have low expectations about design quality when the housing market finally recovers from the recession. The warnings have come from housebuilders, professionals and public sector alike.

There is also a growing consensus that the old model of housebuilders as traders may not continue to exist post-downturn. Instead new models may emerge based around longer-term investment, a stronger role for the public sector and more variety of tenure.

Will design quality suffer as the housing market recovers from the recession? If design quality wasn’t outstanding in the recent boom period, can we be optimistic about the future.

In this pamphlet, former CABE chief executive Richard Simmons sets out the steps that local authorities, central government, the Homes and Communities Agency, the industry and CABE need to take to ensure that homes and neighbourhoods are of better quality. It highlights the opportunities that have been created by the recession to do things differently in the future. Embracing these opportunities can only help us to recover from troubled times better and faster.