England needs a networked system of design support, providing local people with access to built environment expertise and advice, according to the Bishop Review.

The Review, on behalf of Design Council Cabe, was conducted by Peter Bishop, former Director of Design for London and previously a planning director at four different central London boroughs.  During the summer Peter undertook extensive consultation with all those concerned with the built environment including an even hosted by MADE.

Peter concluded that Design Council Cabe should become a centre of excellence for design in the built environment echoing what many people said would miss from the old CABE, their research and guidance publications. The review called for more research into value of good design.  Meanwhile the Government should recognise Design Council Cabe as its key advisor on built environment design matters.  Many of those consulted by Peter Bishop pointed out how the public spending cuts were reducing the number of staff in local authorities with the skills to assess design quality and the report called for a review of capacity in local planning authorities.

The Bishop Review called for the National Planning Policy Framework to give a key role to design review, strengthening the existing wording which makes favourable reference to design review but perhaps fall short of giving it the significance it could have in the planning policy.  Regarding the organisation of Design Council, Bishop recommended that Cabe does the major national reviews (for example of infrastructure projects like HS2) but that most design reviews should be carried out by the national network organisations like MADE or at a more local level. However, if design review is to be more local, we need to be clear about what type of local arrangements qualify as design review and Bishop recommends some form of ‘light-touch’ accreditation for local panels. 

The review also calls for the co-ordination of design support for neighbourhoods.

MADE will be watching closely to see how both Design Council Cabe and the Government respond to the Bishop Review.

Dowload the report here.