Controlling the design of private sector residential development: an agenda for improving practice

In a series of discrete, yet linked, empirical research projects, local authority control of design in English private sector residential development is explored. This wide-ranging work incorporates: a countrywide review of the established but evolving context and practice for the control of residential design; an in-depth theoretical review and examination of the changing central government design agenda in this field; and a series of `innovative practice' case studies in which innovation in local authority treatment of residential design through the planning process is reviewed. The author draws on the combined outcomes of this series of researches to offer an agenda for improving the practice of design intervention for an increasingly criticised, yet prolific, form of development: volume-built speculative residential development. These recommendations are presented after a brief overview of the research structure and methodology, and an examination of other research findings recently published in the area. The author concludes with suggestions for moving the research agenda forward.