Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what support his Department provides to help develop and implement local authorities' design codes.

The National Planning Policy Framework and supporting planning guidance asks local planning authorities to consider using design codes where they could help deliver high quality outcomes. The Framework states that design policies should avoid unnecessary prescription or detail and should concentrate on guiding the overall scale, density, massing, height, landscape, layout, materials and access of new development in relation to neighbouring buildings and the local area more generally.

In addition the Homes and Communities Agency has published a number of guidance documents around design and sustainability providing practical, delivery related knowledge, research findings and good practice.

https://www.gov.uk/topic/housing/design-and-sustainability