Ninety-six per cent of local planning officers say that there are benefits from including design review in the planning system. Of these, 67 per cent say that access to specialist expertise was the main advantage.

These findings are part of a new report launched today, Helping local people choose good design. This marks the end of the first year of the design review network – a unique affiliation between CABE and the eight leading design review panels across England. It also shows that in 2009/10, 204 local authorities benefited from the design review network – almost two thirds of the authorities in England. 

Despite the recession, the number of schemes coming to design review remained high and was consistent with previous years. Overall, the design review network carried out 676 reviews. A third of the reviews were for returning schemes. This shows how the design review process operates as a continuous conversation while schemes evolve, and suggests that previous experience of design review was positive. The report also states that the cost of design review is only 0.005 per cent of the value of the development reviewed, and that the service is most beneficial early in the design process.

Advice given by the Inspire East panel, for example, helped charity Disability Essex to make its new Centre for Disability Studies a third more energy efficient. Suggestions by the panel helped the charity generate income by selling surplus electricity to the national grid and let commercial office space at better rates. The building, completed in 2010, is the first non-domestic PassivHaus construction to be completed in England and has already won awards.

Richard Simmons, chief executive at CABE, said: ‘The Decentralisation and Localism Bill will give local people much more influence on planning decisions. So if decision-making is being devolved to the local community it is vital that it has the design advice it needs.’

In 2009/10 the Places Matter! Design Review Panel reviewed 87 development schemes representing £1.09 billion of investment in the Northwest, and engaged with 38 of the 42 local authorities.

We would like to encourage you to take part in the process by either bringing forward schemes which may benefit from Design Review or attending as observer at one of our sessions, to experience the process for yourself and consider whether the service may become a useful tool as part of a wider consultation process for projects in your area.

For more information visit www.placesmatter.co.uk/design-review