Sir Terence Conran spearheads housing design competition

The designer Sir Terence Conran will launch a government competition on Wednesday to get more people to help design new housing in their local areas. The initiative is part of a campaign to gain public support for a big increase in housebuilding, both to boost investment and jobs and to provide the required number of new homes. The housing minister, Grant Shapps, said: "This is part of a wider point about the need to build more homes, which can't happen without getting local people onside and turning nimbys into yimbys (yes in my back yard). "And by doing this, housebuilders can finally tackle the belief that new builds are potential 'homes from hell', proving the pessimists wrong and clearly demonstrating how well designed and built their properties really are." Conran, 80, the metaphorical godfather of the popular steel and wood minimalism of many public buildings and the actual father of fashion designer Jasper Conran, will be one of the competition judges.