Blowing the whistle on bad house design

Lynsey Hanley is right to draw attention to the lamentable standard of new housing funded by a massive injection of public cash through the Kickstart programme ( Comment , 3 February). However, she is wrong to suggest the whistle has been blown by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment . In fact, it was a freedom of information request by Building Design's news desk that uncovered the scandal that 27 of the 136 projects handed £360m by the government scored five or less out of 20 under the industry's Building for Life standard, with two scoring only 1.5. Despite being the government's design watchdog, Cabe has been very unwilling to help us in our investigation for fear – we believe – of annoying its fellow quango, the Homes and Communities Agency , which pays Cabe for its advice. Hanley is also surprised that "design champions" like Design for Homes have not been more critical of the low standards. However, she should be aware that Design for Homes, despite its name, is partly funded by volume housebuilders, who are the real villains of the piece. Amanda Baillieu Editor, Building Design • Too many houses are built with little thought for decent open space provision, whether for playing, growing food or simply to provide respite from oceans of tarmac. Can the government really not make the connection between poor living environments and increases in poor health and social deprivation? We are demolishing 1960s housing estates and yet, by continuing to provide housing with poorly designed and managed open space, we are simply repeating the mistakes of the past. Rather than ticking boxes, we must invest in good design. Jo Watkins President-elect, Landscape Institute