In what is being seen as a victory for last year’s Farrell Review, architecture looks set to move from the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) to the more powerful Department for Communities and Local Government.
According to architecture newspaper Building Design the decision is “expected to be announced next week and implemented after the general election”.
The rumoured move would place architecture alongside planning and housing portfolios and is being seen as a significant outcome of the Farrell Review, which was revealed almost exactly a year ago.
The move has been widely welcomed by the architecture profession with a spokesperson for RIBA saying: “RIBA has long campaigned for responsibilities to move out of DCMS as little government decision making on architecture issues aside from heritage are made there.
“It would be much better to align with responsibilities on planning, housing and sustainability. There is still more to be done to have a truly joined up government approach and emphasis on architecture policy where it touches upon schools, health, environment, but if this is true it is most definitely a very positive move.”
"A bolder and more valuable step might have been to align architecture with BIS, as design in its broadest sense helps the economy to develop. This includes architecture and, at BIS, it would be integrated with the construction industry."
Rab Bennetts, Bennetts Associates
The professional body’s opinions were echoed by practitioners, with architect Brendan Geraghty of Geraghty Taylor Architects saying: “This is an important decision which will place architecture and the value of good design closer to the engine room of our communities. Architecture will always be the servant of art and culture but it is in serving our communities that we serve architecture.”
Architect Chris Darling, managing director of Darling Associates, commented: “After losing hope that the seemingly permanently parked-up Farrell review would ever gain traction, this is excellent news.”
However, some architects believed that the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) would have been a better home for architecture, as this would have led to stronger connections with the construction industry.
Rab Bennetts, co-founder of Bennetts Associates, said: “Moving from culture to communities is a step in the right direction and will integrate architecture with planning policy. However, a bolder and more valuable step might have been to align architecture with BIS, as design in its broadest sense helps the economy to develop. This includes architecture and, at BIS, it would be integrated with the construction industry.”
The news comes a week after the government announced that a House of Lords Select Committee on the Built Environment will be established after the general election.
This committee first proposed last year by Lord Hunt of Chesterton in a Lords debate on the review is seen as a direct response to Farrell’s recommendation for “a new level of connectedness between government departments, institutions, agencies, professions and the public.”
Sir Terry Farrell last week responded enthusiastically to the news saying: “I wholeheartedly welcome the creation of a select committee for the built environment and am enormously grateful to Baroness Janet Whitaker for all she has done to secure it.
“The stewardship, long-term planning and identity of real places should be a fundamental part of built environment policy. This select committee will be a powerful new voice in that debate and we look forward to hearing more detail about its remit in due course.”
