
John Myers: Allow local people to take back control of building design
Should there be a right to extend your house upwards by a floor or two? The residents in each street should be allowed to decide.
Should there be a right to extend your house upwards by a floor or two? The residents in each street should be allowed to decide.
Buildings with different functions need to be intertwined. In beautiful cities, people tend to live and work side by side.
The campaign against him is driven by the knowledge that May agrees with his views on design – and fear that the Government will act on them.
His long career evinces both a real understanding of issues such as antisemitism and a philospher’s willingness to change his mind.
Roger Scruton is advising the Government on ensuring new buildings are beautiful. But defeating the architectural establishment will not be easy.
Imagine if they raised money to help honour the soldiers who answered Britain’s call during two world wars – thus showing more than anger and resentment.
By giving local communities more control, and broadening the scope of government priorities to include quality and design, we can get Britain building.
Parliament is struggling to retain senior figures. New peers should be chosen on their ability to raise the calibre of debate.
As Sir Roger Scruton notes: “Architecture is a public art: whether we like it or not, we are forced to witness it.”
And, as Boles says, we will never build the number of homes we need unless the state is building 100,000 a year.
Part of settling down and marking time, as Roger Scruton would say, is protecting our environment. Doing so is an unchosen obligation upon us.
Conservatives should restate the moral case for taxation and at the same time find innovative ways of revenue raising that are both popular and effective.
But unless his fully-developed vision of the future can capture heart-and-minds, I’d expect control of the party to stay with the mainstream.
What about those who worship different gods, those who delight in civil rights movements, those mothers who want to go out to work?
It is not for nothing that the ‘hero’ of Ayn Rand’s despicable book ‘The Fountainhead’ is an architect.