Government to launch competition in bid to turn NIMBYs into YIMBYs

The Government said that involving communities early on would encourage them to back new housing projects. 

"This is part of a wider point about the need to build more homes, which can't happen without getting local people onside and turning NIMBYs into YIMBYs (yes in my back yard)," said Housing Minister Grant Shapps. "To do this, residents must be involved in the design of new developments from the outset - helping to build the homes communities want and need and meeting demand from local buyers."

"The design of an area has a significant and lasting impact on the quality of life of its residents - it's therefore vital that local people have a say over how their communities look and feel" said Conran. "I want the competition to inspire communities up and down the country to really think about the places in which they want to live, what they want to see and how they can make a difference. I look forward to launching it later this year, and seeing how creative Britain can be."

"This competition is further evidence of the Government's desire to increase the level of public engagement in the planning system," said Jamie Lockerbie a planning law expert at Pinsent Masons the law firm behind Outlaw.com. "The Localism Act introduced a statutory requirement on developers to undertake pre-application consultation in relation to certain types of development. It will be interesting to see how many design entries are submitted and, importantly, whether any developers actually choose to incorporate the winning designs in their planning application proposals." 

An additional stated aim of the competition is to demonstrate to the public at large that new-build homes are well built and well designed. The announcement by the Department for Communities and Local Government states that polls of the public have shown that "prospective buyers believe that new-builds are badly designed and built". It goes on to state that "three-quarters of people would embrace more housing in their area if they knew it was better designed".

The competition will be launched this autumn.