Regulation 19 Rutland Local Plan

Place shaping and delivering good design

Planning plays a critical role in creating a sense of place and cohesive communities, ensuring that development proposals create connected, characterful, healthy, and sustainable places that people will enjoy for years to come.

Sustainability, health, wellbeing, communities, local pride, tourism, and economic prosperity can all flourish in well designed, people-friendly places. Poorly designed places can, and often do, lead to social, economic, and environmental decline. Good design brings together and improves many of the Council's key services, aspirations, and statutory responsibilities, addressing large scale issues such as protecting and enhancing the unique character of Rutland for residents and visitors, attracting new investment, tackling health inequalities, crime, anti-social behavior, road safety and social exclusion, improving health and wellbeing, strengthening communities and connecting them together. Smaller scale, but equally important, issues include designing out potential problems with parking and bin collections.

What will the policy do?

All development will be assessed against the overarching place shaping principles set out in Policy SC2 which should be used to guide the preparation of development proposals these principles should be used to help structure discussions between local communities, the local planning authority, the developer, and other stakeholders.

Policy SC3 sets out the detailed design criteria which will be used in the assessment of planning applications. This covers:

• local context, identity, and character
• built form, streets, spaces, and movement
• green and blue infrastructure and nature
• mixed and integrated uses
• amenity and easy use homes and buildings
• sustainable, healthy, resource efficient and built to last.

Why is this policy needed?

The NPPF requires Local Plans to contribute to and enable the delivery of sustainable development, it requires strategic policies to set out the overall pattern, scale, and design quality of places. It also strengthens national policy and approach to design taking account of the findings of the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission. The NPPF makes it clear that the creation of high quality, beautiful and sustainable buildings and places is fundamental to the planning and development process. The Framework also clearly states that Plans should set out a clear design vision and expectations. The NPPF goes further, by stating that poor or mediocre design that is not well designed should be refused, in particular, where it fails to reflect local design policy (RCC Design guides and codes) and government guidance on design (National Design Guide and National Model Design Code).

In preparing these policy documents the Government has, in part, been advised by independent bodies that have undertaken extensive research and made recommendations about how to improve the design quality of new development. In particular the recommendations of the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission within Living with Beauty; promoting health, wellbeing, and sustainable growth (2020) have been reflected in the revised NPPF and may be further reflected in future revisions, as set out in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill: reforms to national planning policy (December 2022).

The Place Alliance undertook a study of housing design quality within A Housing Design Audit for England (2020), discovering that the majority of new residential developments were 'mediocre' or 'poor', that potential existed in all areas of the country for improved design quality and that the East Midlands fell significantly below the English average. There is therefore a greater need, based on this evidence, to improve design quality in the East Midlands.

To meet these requirements the Local Plan policy SC3, supplemented by the Design Guidelines for Rutland SPD make a clear commitment to delivering high quality, beautiful and sustainable buildings, and places by providing maximum clarity about what is considered appropriate design in Rutland.

Design Guidelines for Rutland has been adopted as SPD (2021). This included public engagement which helped to evidence the contents of the Design SPD, define key local characteristics and materials, and also support the development of this Local Plan policy.

This Local Plan policy has been written to reflect changes and improvements to national design policy and guidance. The National Design Guide's 10 characteristics of well-designed places have been used to create 6 local design principles.

Table 5 - Local design principles

As local highway authority and the Lead Local Flood Authority, Rutland County Council is key to developing and aligning local policy and national policy and guidance, advising developers on highway design and sustainable drainage systems, taking account of the place making agenda and the need to encourage walking, cycling and the use of public transport.

Place shaping encompasses the design of spaces and buildings, the use of space, buildings, and environment and how we experience a place and the impact that a development has on the built and natural environment.

The design of a place has a direct impact on people's health and well-being, safety, access and travel choices, inclusion, and general quality of life. Design can influence the impact development has on the environment through its location, method and quality of construction, integration with the local area, and the way spaces and buildings address both immediate and future demands of the climate emergency.

Whilst good design is often associated with the physical appearance or functionality of buildings, it is also fundamental to achieving sustainability, climate change and energy efficient objectives. These aspects of design are considered in detail under the Climate Change chapter (chapter 4). Every development provides an opportunity for good design and many of our policies contain a design element.

New development should create a high standard of amenity for existing and future users. The quality of a home is a determining factor in health outcomes and the need for accommodation which is of a suitable size and layout to meet the needs of the occupier/s is key to this. The Government's nationally described space standard (NDSS) sets minimum standards for the size of new dwellings, based upon the number of bedrooms, storeys, and occupancy. The NDSS provide a common standard that local planning authorities may choose to adopt through local plan policies, subject to evidence of need and viability. There is no evidence to suggest that the NDSS are required in Rutland at the current time, however the Council will keep this under review.

In order to create well-designed places, it is important to ensure that new development sits comfortably within, and is sensitive to, the built and landscape characteristics of the County. A thorough and comprehensive understanding of a development site and its local and wider context is required in order to achieve this, followed by a clear response to this context. Development proposals are often submitted with inadequate site and contextual analysis and/or no specific response to the site and context, leading to schemes that are, for example, often nationally generic, ignore local character and materials, fail to take opportunities for connections and that remove or harm natural features and wildlife habitats. The first design principle of the above policy addresses this issue and The National Design Guide and the Rutland Design Guidance SPD provide further guidance on how to undertake this required design process and what factors to consider.

The design process works much more effectively when applicants engage in pre-application discussions, allowing sufficient time to discuss, negotiate, understand, explore, amend, and improve development proposals with the Local Planning Authority and other statutory consultees. The NPPF also encourages applicants to undertake early, proactive, and effective engagement with the community and rewards this process by advising that such proposals should be looked on more favourably. This process helps to speed up decision making once a planning application is submitted and is also more likely to result in the creation of well-designed places that are more accepted by local communities.

Rutland County Council have design advice and review services in place with a regional design review panel where necessary. The Council use Building for a Healthy Life (and any subsequent versions) as a tool for assessing the design quality of new development and expects all residential development proposals of 10 dwellings or more to perform positively when assessed against this. Building for a Healthy Life is a tool that is referenced in the NPPF and that aligns with policy SC3 and the Council's Design Guidelines SPD.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to use the Council's pre-application advice services and to proactively and effectively engage with local communities in order receive early feedback on proposals and to evolve design proposals.

To ensure high quality design is achieved throughout the County, all development proposals will be expected to reflect the Design Guidelines for Rutland SPD (2022), and any relevant Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs). Design Codes, whether produced by the Council or externally, should take in to account the guidance contained in the National Design Guide and the National Model Design Code.

Applicants of major development proposals of 50+ homes and or 10,000 m2 industrial, commercial, or retail floor space, and developments of strategic significance are encouraged to enter into a Planning Performance Agreement (PPA). A PPA is an agreement between the applicant(s) and the local Planning Authority on timescales, actions, and resources to be employed for a specific planning application. They are a project management tool which set out the process for reaching a decision on a planning application. PPAs are usually entered into before submitting an application and can cover all stages of the planning application process, including the pre-application stage.

Supporting Evidence

Design Guidelines for Rutland – SPD (2022)
Living with Beauty; promoting health, wellbeing, and sustainable growth (Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission, 2020)
A Housing Design Audit for England (Place Alliance, 2020)
Building for a Healthy Life (Birkbeck D and Kruczkowski S et al, 2020)
National Design Guide (MHCLG, 2021)
National Model Design Code (MHCLG, 2021)
Gear Change; a bold vision for cycling and walking (Department for Transport, 2020)
Local Transport Note 1/20 (Department for Transport, 2020)
Natural England's GI Planning and Design Guide (2023)