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Lynsey Hanley (Comment, 2 February) puzzles why Design for Homes has not joined in attacks on the Homes and Communities Agency's housebuilding rescue plans. She worries that the HCA awarded emergency funds to unbuilt schemes which scored badly in desktop reviews. These desktop reviews used a matrix called Building for Life, which I wrote in April 2002 so that housebuilding's many professions could have a common language for assessing how accessible, safe and welcoming a new-build development is. The matrix works well when visiting built schemes, but it can be very unreliable without a site visit supported by background knowledge. In 2008 Lynsey was one of several judges who honoured developments on the basis of Building for Life reviews. One of the "winners" is already reported in its local paper to be "a hub for antisocial behaviour a year after first residents moved in".

Building for Life is like a race meeting form card. It give you one person's calculation of the odds for success. But ultimately privileged knowledge of the track and the runners should guide your selection – which is how the HCA works with its local procurement teams. Design for Homes remains unconvinced that remote desktop reviews should be the overriding process for deciding how £1bn of public money should be wagered.

David Birkbeck

Chief executive, Design for Homes

• Your correspondents do not do justice to the Kickstart programme managed by the HCA (Letters, 5 February). While Building for Life assessments provide an important initial quality check, these are supplemented by our own local design teams. In fact we rejected 11 schemes outright on the basis of poor design quality. Kickstart is so far unlocking more than 10,000 much-needed new homes and maintaining capacity and safeguarding jobs in the housebuilding industry.

Bob Kerslake

Homes and Communities Agency

The Sheet Architecture News Architecture, Art and design, Design, Housing, Letters, Politics, Public services policy, Society, The Guardian

Lynsey Hanley is right to draw attention to the lamentable standard of new housing funded by a massive injection of public cash through the Kickstart programme (Comment, 3 February). However, she is wrong to suggest the whistle has been blown by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. In fact, it was a freedom of information request by Building Design's news desk that uncovered the scandal that 27 of the 136 projects handed £360m by the government scored five or less out of 20 under the industry's Building for Life standard, with two scoring only 1.5.

Despite being the government's design watchdog, Cabe has been very unwilling to help us in our investigation for fear – we believe – of annoying its fellow quango, the Homes and Communities Agency, which pays Cabe for its advice. Hanley is also surprised that "design champions" like Design for Homes have not been more critical of the low standards. However, she should be aware that Design for Homes, despite its name, is partly funded by volume housebuilders, who are the real villains of the piece.

Amanda Baillieu

Editor, Building Design

• Too many houses are built with little thought for decent open space provision, whether for playing, growing food or simply to provide respite from oceans of tarmac. Can the government really not make the connection between poor living environments and increases in poor health and social deprivation? We are demolishing 1960s housing estates and yet, by continuing to provide housing with poorly designed and managed open space, we are simply repeating the mistakes of the past. Rather than ticking boxes, we must invest in good design.

Jo Watkins

President-elect, Landscape Institute

The Sheet Architecture News Architecture, Art and design, Design, Housing, Letters, Society, The Guardian

In chasing its short-term targets for new housing, Labour is storing up a legacy of unfit homes

Channel 4, being on the cutting edge of all that's "real", has a predilection for making people live in surroundings not of their own choosing for the purpose of viewers' entertainment. It has just sent four MPs to live on council estates around Britain, with the results being broadcast, starting this week, ­under the boom-tish title Tower Block of Commons.

All that's needed to bring a nation's schadenfreude to a rolling boil is the footage of hapless Lib Dem Mark Oaten groaning, as he approaches his billet: "I'm hoping I'm not in a tower block. It is a bloody tower block." He goes on to describe his feelings about where he's spending a week in terms more suited to banishment during the cultural revolution. Fair enough, perhaps, given the project is intended in part as media ­rehabilitation for legislators.

The level of public esteem accorded to both tower blocks and politicians is, for the moment, about equal. They fester alongside charity muggers and Ryanair in what David Bowie, in the 1986 film Labyrinth, termed "the bog of eternal stench". So what would you say if you knew that the next generation of soon-to-be-loathed and unfit-for-purpose housing was being thrown up under the government's watch?

The Kickstart "housing delivery" programme, through which £400m of public money will be administered to stalled and truncated new housebuilding schemes by the Homes & Communities Agency, has been given a kicking in recent weeks by parties including the influential Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, the government's adviser on building quality.

Under the first round of the programme, many schemes have been revealed as failing most of Cabe's Building for Life criteria. New developments are given ratings out of 20 according to the quality of design, surroundings, environmental credentials and ­likelihood of creating a sense of community. Some have scored as little as 1.5, with many others ­achieving 10 or less.

In effect, the government is pushing through inadequate housing schemes in order to meet its target of ­having built 3m new homes before 2020. Disenchanted professionals have taken to calling the programme ­"Building Slums for the Future" in a nod to the government's other patchy mass construction scheme, Building Schools for the Future.

Yet they're not getting the support they hoped for among other design champions. Even David Birkbeck, the chief executive of Design for Homes, an independent body, has called Kickstart "a Marshall Plan for the devastated housebuilding sector. You don't just give emergency aid to the best dressed. The HCA is right to withhold support from only the very worst".

Really? There's already plenty of appallingly unattractive and family-unfriendly new housing that's been completed during the recession without the aid of Kickstart. My favourite of these must be a high-rise orange space crumpet named The Old Bus Depot, squashed into the junction of two busy A-roads near the M6 at Lancaster. Solely comprising one- and two-bedroom flats, its balconies enjoy uninterrupted views of a PC World superstore and the bit where the A683 splits off from the A6.

Where's the commitment to usefulness, to durability and to delight, which design thinkers from Vitruvius onwards have advocated? John Healey is the latest in a long line of short-lived housing ministers for whom design and planning is just part of a new brief that has to be mastered, rather than a cause that needs pushing and defending at every turn.

Does he, like Richard Crossman in the last mass housing boom of the mid-1960s, want to push through acres of new housing that will look good for the books in the short term but fail miserably in terms of sustainability, and the ­wellbeing of residents? Or does he want to have a legacy so lasting that people remember your name and associate it – like Nye Bevan's – with the use of political power for democratising, rather than expedient, ends? We have long been used to talking about the health service in these kinds of epic terms. Now it's time for housing and planning to be treated with the same fundamental seriousness.

Good homes for all. That's all anyone needs to have in mind. Never mind making it "affordable" – we're the fourth richest country in the world, we can afford to build it, and subsidise it if need be. We could afford good housing in 1945; to say we can't now is like saying we can't afford to think of a future that isn't going to happen. It is. It just depends on what you want it to look like.

The Sheet Architecture News Architecture, Comment, Design, Housing, Politics, Public services policy, Society, The Guardian

An architect dedicated to improving housing in his native Leeds

My friend Eddy Walker, who has died aged 59 from prostate cancer, was an architect who dedicated his life to designing for ordinary people. Working with community groups in Leeds, he improved housing conditions and developed new community buildings, often doing so without charge.

Eddy grew up on the Gipton estate in Leeds and attended St Kevin's secondary modern school, where he decided, aged 14, that he wanted to be an architect. He studied at Liverpool University and North London Polytechnic, and qualified in 1976. He moved back to his beloved Leeds and worked on buildings for the community arts groups Red Ladder and Interplay Trust.

I first met him when he was renovating Hall Lane community centre, which he described as a "real" one, as it was owned and managed by residents. When the Yorkshire stone roof tiles disappeared overnight along with the roofer, Eddy ordered new slates and finished the job himself.

In 1978 he and a few colleagues set up Arcaid, one of a number of technical aid centres for community and voluntary organisations. He later helped to establish a national association for similar centres. Respected by many radical architects, Eddy was elected as an "unattached" representative to the Architects' Registration Council.

He frequently provided technical reports for people taking legal action against landlords. In one case, he defeated the DHSS at a tribunal about additional heating allowances needed to counter housing defects. This resulted in more than £75,000 going to claimants in Leeds alone.

Eddy designed the New Wortley Community Centre, the Caribbean Cricket Club pavilion, Belle Isle Enterprise Centre and, with Leeds Environmental Design Associates, built the Skelton Grange Environment Centre, which in 2006 won a Civic Trust commendation.

He listened carefully to people and came up with appropriate, often innovative solutions. His consultation with residents in the Methleys neighbourhood about spaces for children's play led to turfing the length of Methley Terrace for an unforgettable weekend of Methley Olympics, with t'ai chi, pony rides and an outdoor cinema.

Outside work, Eddy's passions focused on the Yorkshire countryside and pubs. He leaves behind his twin sister and three brothers and their families, and a large network of friends and colleagues.

The Sheet Architecture News Architecture, Housing, Obituaries, The Guardian

Ecohomes need not look like the fallout from a science-fiction writer's nightmare. Some architects are sticking to traditional values

Think of environmentally friendly houses and what do you imagine? Probably a futuristic-looking house bristling with wind turbines. But these days it can be something more low-key as well.

From the outside, Raven Housing Trust's flats look like new versions of Victorian houses. The only hint that they are something special comes in the photovoltaic panels on the roof and the larger windows to maximise natural light.

These homes in South Nutfield, Surrey, are the first social housing properties to meet level five of the six-step code for sustainable homes, which the government uses to rate the credentials of green housing. Green features include a wood-chip-powered biomass boiler, a ventilation and heat-exchange system, low-flow taps and rainwater harvesting.

"People think environmentally friendly design will be wacky, with wind turbines on the roof and so on, but we wanted to make these homes look like any other," says Raven development manager Pete Trowbridge.

Meanwhile, Gentoo Homes housing association has taken a German design standard and tweaked it to meet north-east England tastes. Passiv Haus homes are so well insulated that they would not normally have chimneys, but Gentoo is putting on fake ones to help the homes blend in with their surroundings in Tyne and Wear. The bathrooms will have radiators; though not, strictly speaking, necessary, they at least provide somewhere for residents to hang their towels, says Allan Thompson, operations director at Gentoo Homes. "You have to make small concessions so it is not too radical a move for the great British public," he explains.

Out with the old?

But some architects think a new, greener mindset should be accompanied by a new aesthetic. Bill Dunster, who designs housing schemes without fossil fuels like BedZed and RuralZed, says green designs that ape old styles are a form of retro-escapism. "The language of the contemporary vernacular is different," he says. "We need to recognise that and embrace the reality of 21st-century life and the environmental challenges we are facing. Using traditional materials but a modern aesthetic is the way forward."

In Suffolk, Orwell Housing Association has doffed its hat to traditional building methods while using a rather unusual material - hemp. The highly breathable "Hemcrete" is sandwiched between panels, creating a structure that regulates temperature very well. Architect Cathy Hawley says the way the homes are clustered in small groups reflects the barns and 1950s council houses nearby, while the houses themselves are a pinky brown, a more low-key version of the pink renders used on the county's thatched homes. But the traditional theme stops there, as the buildings have greater amounts of glazing to the south to make use of natural heat and light from the sun. "They don't look like new-old houses," she says. "But I don't think we have made a complete break with the past."

In Milton Keynes, architects have designed homes that can be styled to suit any neighbourhood. The homes, designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners for a government competition to build a home for £60,000, are made of panels using old phone books as insulation with breathable glues. The Milton Keynes homes look fairly contemporary but a version of the design, built as a show house elsewhere by developer Wimpey, was given a brick and block skin for a traditional appearance. "We don't believe there should be a fixed aesthetic," says architect Ivan Harbour. "You should have a good system that allows buildings to be well built and insulated and perform well."

As the pressure mounts to make our new homes greener, it is not yet clear whether the modern will win out over the traditional. But if today's homes are anything to go by, the green homes of the future may well come in all shapes and styles.

Weblinks

Bill Dunster: zedfactory.com
Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners: richardrogers.co.uk
Raven Housing Trust: ravenht.org.uk
Orwell Housing Association: orwell-housing.co.uk
Gentoo Group: gentoogroup.com
Ritches Hawley Mikhail: rhmarchitects.com

The Sheet Architecture News Architecture, Art and design, Design, Environment, Features, Green building, Housing, Society, The Guardian

• Institute urges ministers to 'unblock' funding
• Building workers' union seeks social housing boost

• Professions worst hit by the recession (pdf)

Architects are joining the ranks of benefit claimants at a faster rate than any other profession, according to a Guardian analysis of figures for the last 12 months.

Other jobs related to the construction industry, including managers, surveyors, engineers, bricklayers, carpenters and scaffolders, also feature prominently among the 20 professions that have seen the biggest increases in benefits claimants.

Construction unions and professional bodies said the actual numbers out of work were much higher than the official figures suggest and reiterated their pleas for the government to revive the industry by underwriting public building projects.

Office of National Statistics figures released this week show that between February 2008 and February 2009 the number of architects claiming benefits rose by 760% from 150 to 1,290 - the biggest increase among recorded professions.

The second biggest increase was among architectural technologists and town planning technicians.

The Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) said the figures came as no surprise and estimated that the level of unemployment and under-employment among its members was at least 30% higher than official figures.

Riba's president, Sunand Prasad, said the problem was "gigantic". He added: "I would estimate that those figures represent a fraction of the reality, based on our returns, anecdotal material and our projections. And the reason is simple: construction always gets hit in the neck in a recession. It's one of the first casualties of a decline in the economy."

He predicted levels of unemployment in the industry would get worse: "Architects are a bellwether for what's going to happen to the construction industry - buildings that are not being designed today are not going to be built tomorrow."

Prasad said that in spite of the government's commitment to public projects, work had stalled because of a reliance on private finance. Riba had urged the government to "unblock the pipeline" by funding the building of schools, clinics and other public buildings directly from the exchequer for a period of three years, he said.

Riba is also pressing for a project to make social housing more energy efficient as an eco-friendly means of creating jobs. Prasad added: "The biggest danger is that we lose people that don't come back and we are unprepared when the recovery does happen. In the early 90s we lost a whole generation who went on to do other things and that's noticeable in the profession now."

The construction union Ucatt said the numbers out of work might be double the ONS figures because about half of its members were self-employed and did not qualify for some benefits.

The union wants the government to back a huge social housing building project to help create jobs in housing - the worst hit sector of the building industry - and to help the 1 million people living in inadequate accommodation.

"If the money spent on propping up the banks had been spent on social housing then the economy would be in a much healthier state," said Alan Ritchie, Ucatt's general secretary.

Paul Kenny, the GMB general secretary, said: "Large parts of the construction industry is on its knees.

"The GMB has asked the government to acquire unsold blocks of flats and turn them into social housing but that programme is stuck. The government needs to look again at getting it working."

The legal profession has also been badly hit. Lawyers came ninth among the professions with the biggest increases in benefits claimants - up from 350 to 1,570 over the last 12 months - an increase of 349%. Legal secretaries came 12th.

The Law Society said it had set out a detailed agenda to help solicitors survive the recession, including practical guidance for members facing redundancy, a pastoral care helpline and online seminars on "surviving the downturn".

The society's president, Paul Marsh, has also written to Revenue and Customs asking it to suspend its system of taxing law firms before they have received payment for their services.

• This footnote was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Wednesday 25 March 2009. Above we quoted the Royal Institute of British Architects as estimating that unemployment and underemployment among its members was at least 30% higher than official figures. In fact, Riba's president, Sunand Prasad, said that in his estimation 30% of architects were currently unemployed or underemployed.

The Sheet Architecture News Architecture, Art and design, Business, Construction industry, Culture, Housing, Money, News, Recession, Redundancy, Society, The Guardian, UK news, Unemployment and employment statistics, Work & careers

Culture department protects handful of 'temporary' homes from the bulldozer on biggest surviving estate in UK

The UK's biggest surviving estate of post-second world war prefab houses has been saved – in part – from possible demolition after the Department for ­Culture, Media and Sport listed the compact, plywood-framed bungalows as being of particular historic interest.

Six of the least-altered homes within the Excalibur estate in Catford, south-east ­London, have been granted Grade II listed status, the department announced today.

Some locals had wanted all 187 houses, along with the estate's accompanying ­tin-roofed prefab church, to receive ­official protection, while English Heritage had argued for a listing of 21 homes. But in a letter to residents, the culture department noted that many of the other homes had been substantially changed through the addition of exterior cladding, replacement windows and extensions.

The 600 sq ft (55 sq m) two-bedroom homes were among almost 160,000 hastily erected around the country from 1945 to 1949 to try to ease a housing shortage. Cheap to build and needing only a concrete base, the houses were mass produced in sections at a factory and assembled on site.

Despite being intended as a temporary solution, the prefabs proved surprisingly popular, in large part because they included such luxuries as fitted kitchens and bathrooms, as well as private gardens. However, very few remain after many were demolished in recent years for failing to meet government standards on insulation. A handful of other prefabs have been listed before, 16 in Birmingham and a pair in Doncaster.

The six homes chosen in south-east London are of the Uni-Seco type and remain "largely as built" apart from new front doors, according to the listing notice. Some are believed to still contain original fitted shelves and cupboards.

While the department noted the interest of the wider estate, calling it "a unique example of prefab estate planning on a large scale", it remains to be seen whether the rest of it will survive.

The local council, Lewisham, which owns 80% of the prefabs, has reached a deal under which a housing association will take control of the estate and, depending on residents' views, possibly raze it so new houses and flats can be built.

A number of locals, including at least one ex-soldier who moved into the estate when it was newly built, have fought the plan. Others, however, say the homes are cramped, damp and impossible to heat and support the idea of demolition.

"We're absolutely delighted about the listing but I can't celebrate completely as I don't know what will happen to the whole estate," said one local who opposes demolition, Jim Blackender. "I'm hopeful because they talked about the historic interest of the estate as a whole."

A spokeswoman for Lewisham council said all options were being considered and the residents would be balloted on the estate's future.

The Sheet Architecture News Architecture, Culture, guardian.co.uk, Heritage, Housing, London listings, News, Second world war, UK news

Sir Simon Milton, interviewed in Building:

Boris' legacy will be the creation of a distinctive architecture for London. A kind of architectural vernacular, especially for housing, that is definitely London.

For Milton on the "affordable" target, the mayor's use of strategic powers and charging developers for Crossrail, read on.

The Sheet Architecture News Architecture, Blogposts, Boris Johnson, guardian.co.uk, Housing, London, London politics, Transport policy