Key professional institutions have agreed to establish a working party to consider how to train a new generation of urban designers.

Sir Stuart Lipton, chair of the Commission for Architecture in the Built Environment, will chair a working party to promote a new multi-disciplinary approach to training in design and consider how local authorities might be encouraged to promote better urban design in their areas.

The decision to create the working party follows a top-level skills seminar hosted by Planning Minister Nick Raynsford, who said that improving the quality of urban design was a major priority in making the country’s towns and cities places where people want to live and work. He added that "achieving good design depended on the practical skills of the designer and the commitment to good design of all those concerned with new development".

The seminar was attended by Alan Howarth, Minister for the Arts; Sir Stuart Lipton, Chairman of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment; and invited participants from the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and the Greater London Authority, among others.

Anna Lagerkvist