Teoría y práctica del diseño urbano para la reflexión de la ciudad contemporánea

238 Teoría y Práctica del Diseño Urbano recent times have seen the importance of pre-application dis- cussions where developers (and their agents), planning au- thorities, politicians and key stakeholders are encouraged to meet in advance of the formal planning application process to decide what the main issues are and how these are to be determined (Punter, 2009). There is some evidence that at this stage issues around the design of the development are dis- cussed and agreed, often in contravention of planning policy (Hebbert, 2009; Punter, 2009; Short, 2007 for example). In addi- tion to both the developer and local planning authority the continuous involvement and pressure from professional bo- dies and relevant agencies to improve the housing design of- fer is particularly relevant. In particular the role of the Com- mission on Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) has come to inhabit a particularly important role in the pro- motion of good design outcomes through the planning pro- cess. CABE is a government sponsored agency set up to promote better design and provide advice to local planning authorities. The agents involved in the development process – develo- pers submitting information into the planning process, plan- ners determining compliance with policy, elected officials who decide whether planning permission should be granted, for example - reflect on a large number of trade-offs inclu- ding between planning policy and socio-economic issues, the acceptability of possible impacts of development when bal- anced against investment and regeneration, and that deci- sions themselves reflect power relationships and dominant narratives about the direction and rate of urban change. The production of new urban housing is an interesting example of these relationships. Given that there is, theoretically, a ro- bust planning policy basis for the promotion of design qual- ity, why is it that we see such a wide variation in the actual quality of what is built? Influences over the design quality of new housing This section of the paper will outline how England’s planning system, speculative housing market and the producers of new housing seek to influence the quality of new urban housing. This will be structured around the four main issues already mentioned in the introduction: the regulatory framework in- cluding an examination of where the trade-offs between key stakeholders might lie in negotiating housing outcomes; mar-