Aerial view of the Manchester skyline (Bardhok Ndoji/Alamy)

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Our most beloved and successful places were not created by accident, but through civic ambition, long-term thinking, and a belief that good design serves the public interest.

City architects have historically shaped this belief, helping to create high-quality homes and places that continue to provide lasting benefit today.

The Government is rightly focused on building new homes, new towns, and stronger regional economies. But if we want to deliver at scale, we need to think not only about how many homes are built, but equally about whether the places we create will work for the people who live in them. That’s why RIBA is calling for a three-year pilot programme to fund city architects in combined authorities across England.

At the very moment we are asking local areas to deliver more developments at a faster pace, much of the expertise needed to shape that growth has been hollowed out. Planning departments have faced severe funding pressures, and nearly a third of local authorities have reported skills gaps in urban design and architecture. Without this design capacity, too many opportunities are missed: difficult sites become stalled, planning becomes slower and more fragmented, and the quality of new places suffers.

The value that city architects provide is tangible, as demonstrated in our new report, Making the case for city architects. Using the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) as an example, the report shows that improvements across four housing quality factors could generate £47.6 million in additional value over three years.

Our modelling further suggests that if city architects helped the GMCA increase housebuilding, even by just 1% of its existing spare capacity, this could deliver dozens of additional homes. This modest uplift would generate nearly £1 million in additional tax revenue, alongside £10.6 million in additional economic output and £4.4 million in Gross Value Added to the local economy and construction sector.

We can also see the benefit of architect-led planning in Nottingham. Access to in-house design expertise in Nottingham City Council is helping to support a consistent uplift in housing numbers on residential developments. Across the sites where design-led housing models were adopted, projects saw an increase in green spaces by 17% and up to 20% more homes.

When we prioritise good design, we do not compromise growth; we improve it

These are the kinds of outcomes we should be aiming for. Not a choice between quantity and quality, but a planning system capable of delivering both. Not development that simply meets a target, but development that strengthens the places we live in. Not short-term volume at the expense of long-term value, but growth that is more intelligent, more efficient, and more durable.

The value of a well-designed built environment cannot be overstated. It affects health and wellbeing, economic opportunity, social connection and confidence in the places around us. When we prioritise good design, we do not compromise growth; we improve it.

From Sir Christopher Wren’s reimagining of London to Edwin Lutyens’ civic grandeur, and from the great public housing and urban visions of the twentieth century to the work of architects such as Norman Foster today, this country has repeatedly shown how design can shape national confidence and improve everyday life. As we embark on another era of ambitious housebuilding, we should be making the case for the next generation of figures with that same civic imagination. Architects should be empowered not only to design individual buildings, but to help shape the towns, cities, and communities of the future.

City architects are not a relic of the past. They are a modern solution to modern problems, and a way to ensure that national ambition becomes a lasting national value.

Chris Williamson is President of the Royal Institute of British Architects

Kemi Badenoch with Douglas Lumsden on 16 June (PA Images/Alamy)

4 min read12 min

Many colleagues from across the House have asked me what has changed. How did we flip a seat, previously held by the leader of the SNP in Westminster, to the Conservatives – and how did we do it so resoundingly?

The answer is, like always in politics, manifold. Firstly, we turned the election into a referendum on oil and gas. Aberdeen South is among the most affected by Ed Miliband’s net-zero policies. It’s an area that has always relied heavily on its natural resources for careers and livelihoods, and the UK has relied on them for many of its crucial products.

Since Miliband took over as Energy Secretary, the country has lost 1,000 jobs a month in the sector, and few places have been as heavily impacted as Aberdeen South. You can feel it, walking along the streets in the constituency. Empty houses, for sale signs, and businesses shutting down. The by-election result was a resounding rejection of Miliband’s devastating energy policies and a vote for the Conservative Party’s pledge to get Britain drilling.

Second, this result is recognition that the Conservative Party has changed under new leadership and a vote of confidence in Kemi Badenoch. Kemi visited Aberdeen South three times during the campaign, speaking to energy workers and ordinary constituents about how the SNP and Labour have let them down and reassuring them that the Conservatives were fighting in their corner. Time and again, her visits were noted at the doorstep, with her personal popularity finally translating into votes.

Third, we put forward an excellent candidate in Douglas Lumsden, formerly an MSP for the Northeast Scotland region and an oil and gas worker from Aberdeen. A lot of behind-the-scenes work goes into a campaign – campaign managers, strategists, pollsters, etc – but an election is often won or lost by the quality of the candidate. Douglas led from the front, campaigning 12 hours a day, always with a smile on his face. He met and thanked every volunteer who came out to campaign for him, often through torrential rain and occasionally in freezing conditions (yes, I’m describing June in Aberdeen).

Under Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative Party is once more an electable force in Scotland

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In terms of the results, we saw a collapse of the SNP vote. While Peter Murrell’s sentencing undoubtedly played a part in this – another reason to question its timing after the Holyrood elections – the overall failure of the SNP to deliver meaningful change was most evident. The SNP have presided over deteriorating educational standards, and some of the worst NHS waiting times in the UK. The SNP vote simply did not turn out.

Reform UK was also a non-entity. It gained well under 10 per cent of the vote in both Scottish seats, putting a spanner in the works of Malcolm Offord’s ambition, “I’m in this to be first minister.”

And finally, Labour stayed at home. Labour’s vote fell by over 86.47 per cent. Only recently, Anas Sarwar was the favourite to become first minister of Scotland. Labour now looks further from power in Scotland than ever. But it wasn’t just Labour voters staying at home – they turned up for us. Many voters who had always supported Labour voted Conservative to keep the SNP out. We don’t take these votes for granted.

Under Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative Party is once more an electable force in Scotland. Reform was irrelevant, losing heavily in both Aberdeen South and Arbroath and Broughty Ferry, and the SNP faced a resounding rejection of their and Miliband’s destructive net-zero policies.

It was a message from those who work in the oil and gas sector that we must keep drilling, not just for the essential products it provides the country but because thousands of skilled jobs depend on it.

But, most importantly, Aberdeen South has gained a brilliant new MP in Douglas Lumsden, who will advocate for all his constituents and, of course, continue to champion the oil and gas sector in Scotland. 

Andrew Bowie is the Conservative MP for West Aberdeenshire & Kincardine, and shadow Scotland secretary

Dr Sarah Ingham is the author of The Military Covenant: its impact on civil-military relations in Britain.

“Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me!”

Thanks to a mega-decibel boom-box, Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation speech on Monday morning failed to bring to mind any of Shakespeare’s majestic reflections on the transition of power: it was less Coriolanus, more Carry on Cleo.

For the fourth time in four years the Downing Street lectern can be likened to a scaffold, signalling the death of Prime Ministerial authority. But what should have been a solemn national moment became farcical, down to that Prat in the Hat, Steve Bray.

The fanatical Remainer has been sounding off in Whitehall and around party conference venues at a gunfire decibel-level for the best part of a decade. He imposed himself on London’s Clubland when a Boris Johnson portrait was unveiled.

Rejoiners have been only too happy to indulge their pet jester’s antics. Things Can Only Get Better at full volume when Rishi Sunak called a General Election in 2024? What larks!

The joke wasn’t quite so funny for Labour on Monday as Sir Keir’s announcement was accompanied by Beethoven’s Ode to Joy belting out across SW1 – and into ears around the world.

It is unthinkable that, with their sense of national pride, historic moments in France or the United States could be similarly marred by a monomaniac. But here in Britain, we must suck it up, buttercup.

Who said irony is dead? A human rights lawyer, Sir Keir was in no position to object. Buffoon Bray’s right to breach our peace has been legally tested and ruled to be protected in law under Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, linked to the right to protest.

On Wednesday, Kemi Badenoch wrote to Met Police Chief Sir Mark Rowley asking why the Force had not appealed the court’s finding in favour of Bray.

Alas, by not acting, the Met is making clear whose side it is on. Similarly, Gaza march protestors in London got away with chanting “Israel is a terror state, kill all Jews.” Instead of arresting them for incitement, police officers preferred to turn a deaf ear.

The Human Rights Convention was drafted in 1950, shortly after Britain’s collective national endeavour of fighting total war.

The Conservative Party is committed to leaving the ECHR, as Rowley was reminded. Bray is providing another reason for doing so. It is time to sweep away British legislation based on an antiquated Convention that no longer serves Britain as it is now, rather than how the world was back in the 1950s.

Today, the closest most will get to combat is Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. In our Insta era of influencers and selfies, it is unthinkable there could be political resignations over NHS dentures as there were in 1951. Today, who under 30 wanting Love Island-contestant teeth would trouble an NHS dentist?

Since PM Starmer’s ousting, commentators have asked whether Britain is ungovernable. With the 10th anniversary of the referendum, inevitably many blame Brexit for the political turbulence. But few are reflecting on whether out-sourcing policymaking to Brussels damaged Britain’s ability to think for itself. Spoon-fed by Eurocrats for decades, instead of asking what works, the British state has grown fat, lazy and useless.

By raising the rights of the individual over the collective, human rights legislation is now actively undermining Britain as much as fish discos, unaccountable quangos and a £270 million, 350,000-page planning application.

On Monday, the logical conclusion was reached. One person’s narcissism superseded others’ focus on a moment of political significance – which could also have an impact on the global financial markets. The turnover in No.10 is already bewildering this country’s friends and allies: throw in the jowly jester’s Yakety Sax soundtrack (the Benny Hill Show theme) and it’s no wonder bond traders have taken fright at Basket Case Britain.

Perhaps Monday’s unamusing opera buffa was loud enough to awaken some doubts among supporters of the ECHR, a charter which makes it almost impossible to deport the 43,806 detected arrivals who came to Britain via illegal routes in the 12 months to March 2026.

The illegal migrants, the Gaza marchers and the Prat in the Hat are quick to claim their rights to gatecrash this country, to disrupt London week in, week out and to impose their views on the rest of us. Me. Me. Me. It really is all about them and, probably, their social media posts. They are exempt from any balancing responsibility to Britain, their fellow citizens or to the greater good.

Britain’s unwritten social contract relies on the state maintaining good order in the public realm. “O Freunde, Nicht Diese Töne!” (“Oh Friends, Not These Sounds!”), as Beethoven wrote in Ode to Joy. But Monday illustrates that human rights protect the discordant individual rather than the silent majority.