To understand the problems affecting nearly all new housing development in the UK, just search the name of any major house builder + “development layout” in Google images.

Here’s a taste of what you’ll find.. (1/x)

Never-ending cul-de-sacs.. (2/x)

Left over land labelled as “public open space” (3/x)

Roads that wiggle when they could be straight (4/x)

Dead ends and turning heads (5/x)

‘Gateway’ roundabouts (6/x)

Acres of asphalt (7/x)

Roads that could join up to others but don’t (8/x)

More space given to housing cars than people (9/x)

Highway loops (10/x)

Towns planned one old field at a time (11/x)

Detached (= aspirational) homes wherever possible.. (12/x)

Affordable housing kept apart from the rest (13/x)

Houses named after villages, dead poets, flowers or trees (though if your house is an affordable one, it usually doesn’t get a name at all) (14/x)

This isn’t only about the big PLC housebuilders. If you look at the plans of affordable housing providers, SMEs and regional builders, they’ll have many of the same problems, frequently more so (-5/x)

It’s about the way we’ve become accustomed to delivering housing. Most of these layouts are indistinguishable from housing estates built in the 1990s. (16/x)

Many of these problems are about how we prioritise cars vs people in housing developments. This cartoon by @davewalker is a simple overview of how things might be done better. (17/17)