All new public projects including housing, schools, and hospitals will be subject to new design standards, the government will announce today as it publishes the first big report on urban regeneration in a decade.

Ten years after Richard Rogers launched his report, Towards an Urban Renaissance, Hazel Blears, communities secretary, and Andy Burnham, culture secretary will publish new objectives to improve the public realm.

The report will also try to impose similar quality demands on the private sector and involve the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, the government’s architecture watchdog, in the process.

There have been improvements in the quality of public space in the UK but the report stresses that it remains inadequate in socially deprived areas.

Financial Times