Design and Characterisation Guidance

This consultation closed on 27 March 2022.

The draft Design and Characterisation guidance is a suite of documents that provides guidance on design and urban characterisation in London. It aims to ensure that land is being used in the best way to deliver the right quantity of new housing, at the right quality, in the right place, embedding high-quality design at the centre of housing delivery.

The draft Design and Characterisation guidance includes the following four London Plan Guidance (LPG) documents:

Characterisation and Growth Strategy LPG provide guidance to local planning authorities and neighbourhood planning groups on carrying out a characterisation assessment for their borough or neighbourhood. This assessment should be used to inform an areas capacity for change and growth. This includes identifying if there are locations where tall buildings may be appropriate.

Small Site Design Codes LPG provides guidance to local planning authorities and neighbourhood planning groups on preparing area-wide housing design codes for a range of ‘character types’. This includes the development of a coding plan and a design code for each character type to increase housing supply from small sites. The guidance also provide four example small site design codes.

Optimising Site Capacity: A Design-led Approach LPG provide guidance on the London Plan's design-led approach to optimising site capacity. This involves the setting of design parameters and establishing an indicative site capacity for residential sites.

Housing Design Standards LPG presents a set of housing design standards for use when designing or assessing new housing.

What has happened so far

The four guidance documents above have been developed out of the 'Good Quality Homes for All Londoners' guidance that went out for a public consultation between 13 October 2020 and 15 January 2021 (13 weeks). The consultation summary report for this consultation can be viewed in the document library. Following this consultation, the documents (previously called Modules) have been revised to each become a separate London Plan Guidance (LPG) document. As a result, Module A of the Good Quality Homes for All Londoners guidance has been split into two documents, the Characterisation and Growth Strategy LPG and Optimising Site Capacity: A Design-led Approach LPG.

How you can take part

We would now like to get your feedback on the four guidance documents. Please tell us your views by completing our surveys below. The consultation will close on 27 March 2022. We will be running consultation events on the guidance aimed at boroughs, planners, developers, designers, and the general public. Watch our first briefing below.

If you have any queries about this consultation, please email QualityHomesLPG@london.gov.uk.

Equality Impact Assessment

The equality implications of the draft guidance have been assessed through an Equality Impact Assessment which can be viewed in the document library.

Please share your views on our assessment and any potential equality impacts by completing our surveys below.

What happens next

The final guidance was published in 2023 and can be found via the links below:

• Characterisation and Growth Strategy LPG
• Small Site Design Codes LPG
• Optimising Site Capacity: A Design-led Approach LPG 
• Housing Design Standards LPG

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