Design may not seem the obvious way to solve problems as diverse and far-reaching as bullying in schools, car vandalism and the security of our national food supply.

But Richard Simmons, chief executive of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (Cabe), believes that better design is the answer to almost all our social problems - or at least, a significant part of it. Too often the social function of design isn't taken into account, he says. In 1999, Cabe was set up to address the problem.

“The Government recognised that we weren't getting good enough design in the places where we live, where we work, where we go to school.”

Where we live is at the heart of Cabe's work. The commission has just finished a three-year audit of new housing, looking at design quality. “About a third of the housing that's been built over the past ten years should never have been given planning permission because it's simply too poor,” he says. Only about 5 per cent is really good. A third of people think their neighbourhood is unsafe for children and 48 per cent say there is not enough space to play, he says. On many estates the only public space is the car park.

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“Kids play on and around the cars, so why do you think your car gets damaged?” he says. Developers, many of whom work to a short-term financial model, are partly responsible. Open spaces cost money; often councils consider it the developers' responsibility and vice versa. “Someone has to think about the whole estate, not just the house you buy.”

So who should take responsibility? “Everyone. It's in all our interest to make places sustainable.” His faith in the individual's ability to change things nears the point of idealism. Those with buying power can demand better neighbourhoods; developers seduce people with the property, not its surroundings. “You step outside the soft-focus kitchen [and] the world comes into sharp focus,” he says.

Car dependency is a critical design failing. For many people on estates, the nearest shop is five miles away, Cabe found. “There's a big onus on the public to say ‘we can't afford big estates in the middle of nowhere',” he says. It is symptomatic of a wider problem. “Planners haven't got their heads around sustainability,” he says. Of 700 schemes surveyed, just seven addressed sustainability. One city building used a biofuels burner with the wood chips driven in from the countryside by lorry. Yet zero-carbon homes are having a tangible effect, he says. Gripes that they are unfeasible are based on single-home costings. “Developers are very good at mass production and getting things cheaply.” Cabe supports even tougher compulsory targets.

Eco-towns are the big sister of low-carbon homes. Simmons, who sits on the Eco-town Challenge Panel set up to test the idea, says that the existing built environment is the more pressing issue.

“We want a strategy that makes all our towns and cities eco-towns and cities.” He is concerned that eco-towns will be seen as off-grid retreats for a green elite. “Everyone should be able to live a green lifestyle conveniently. There is a real worry that being green is seen as something that only the rich can afford.” Even if eco-towns don't materialise, “we will have learnt a lot from the process,” he says.

At a micro level, issues of national security - food and energy supply - all come back to design. Giving residents space to grow vegetables would improve food security in a shaky economic climate, he says. “These sound like big issues for a design organisation. But how we design our places has a big impact on how we live our lives.”

Uuban Hub 2008

For the first time at the annual party political conferences in September, there will be a co-ordinated programme of fringe events on urban issues. The Urban Hub will bring together Cabe, the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Centre for Cities, the Core Cities Group and the Work Foundation for a series of panel discussions on the issues affecting cities - including housing and neighbourhoods, transport and the role of businesses in city governance. Public Agenda and The Times will be the media partner for all 24 events.

For further information, visit www.urban-hub.org

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