Building for Life assessments

We recommend that Building for Life is used to assess all new housing proposals before they are submitted as planning applications.

A design team can produce an informal assessment of the development they are working on. An explanation of how the scheme responds to the Building for Life criteria is a really useful way to demonstrate the quality of your proposal. The Building for Life criteria also make a good framework for presenting design details – for example in a design and access statement.

A formal assessment of a proposed housing development may be carried out by a local planning authority as part of the planning process. This type of assessment is carried out by a Building for Life assessor. The assessment will be registered and may be reviewed by CABE. Building for Life assessors are usually planning officers, development control officers, architects, urban or landscape designers.

How are Building for Life assessments scored?

Evidence is the key.  A Building for Life assessment is a way of referencing the evidence available about the quality of a proposed or completed housing development.  Our tool Evaluating housing proposals step by step shows examples of the evidence used to answer each of the 20 questions.

Assessments are completed against all of the 20 criteria.

Each criterion can be scored 1, 0.5 or 0.

• Score of 1 - Awarded where there is sufficient evidence that the design meets the criterion
• Score of 0.5 - Awarded where a specific part of the design meets this criterion, but another does not.  This should not be used as a default option where the design is generally unconvincing, or you can't make up your mind.
• Score of 0 - Awarded where there is not enough evidence that the criterion will be met, or where the evidence makes it clear the criterion will not be met

Building for Life scores fall in to the following grades:

• 16 or more - Very good
• 14 - 15.5 - Good
• 10 - 13.5 - Average
• 9.5 or fewer - Poor 

Who might ask for a Building for Life assessment?

• Communities and Local Government (CLG)
  CLG asks local planning authorities to conduct Building for Life assessments of built developments and report back on design quality
• Homes and Communities Agency (HCA)
  You must be able to demonstrate how you address the Building for Life criteria if you are bidding for National Affordable Housing Programme grant funding or are proposing a residential development on HCA land
• Local planning authorities
  Many local planning authorities require planning applicants to demonstrate how they have addressed the twenty questions. This might be a requirement within their local development framework or supplementary planning guidance.