back up test

In a few weeks, old CABE disappears and its successor begins work as part of the Design Council. What are the prospects for the new arrangement, and how will the politics work? When CABE was started in 1999, its support came from the Government's Culture department, DCMS, which had sponsored CABE's predecessor the Royal Fine Art Commission. DCMS has remained CABE's primary sponsor, but as the years have gone by, it has received progressively more funding from what is now the Communities department, DCLG, responsible for planning, housing etc. - the two funding sources reflecting architecture's uneasy siting, as far as tidy minded administrators are concerned, somewhere between fine art and the provision of useful shelter. The Design Council's links are with yet another department, the Business department, headed by Vince Cable. This could make a significant difference in the way new CABE will relate to its political (pay)masters. The DCMS is way down the Whitehal...

People would be more interested in getting involved in a 'Big Community' than in the 'Big Society', according to research published this week. There's not much sign of enthusiasm for 'Localism' either, so perhaps that term also needs another look. The default unit of localism in the Localism Bill is the parish - we still have parish councils in some places, generally in the countryside, but not in others. The adjective associated with a parish is parochial. So perhaps Parochialism would be a better word for what is intended? Certainly as far as 'neighbourhood planning' is concerned, it would convey the likely flavour more accurately. But there is also something called 'community planning' - which starts to sound a bit more like something useful. The planning system suffers from too many words and not enough pictures, but the choice of words is still important.