The report from Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE points to a quality blindspot which suggests that house builders and planners need to work much harder to create a sense of place.

While 91 per cent are satisfied with their individual home, there is widespread dissatisfaction with the wider development. Forty five per cent believe that their neighbours "go their own way, rather than doing things together and trying to help each other". Forty per cent think there is not enough public open space and 48 per cent want more space where neighbours can get to know each other.

These new resident survey findings are consistent with the problems in terms of layout, character, and public space identified by design professionals in CABE’s first national Housing Audit, completed in February 2007.

Wayne Hemingway, designer and chair of Building for Life (the national initiative to champion high quality homes and neighbourhoods), is supporting CABE's call for a public debate about what makes a great place to live.

He said:

"Every new development should have the elements that help to foster a sense of community and belonging, but instead people find themselves living in anonymous estates without all the elements that make life easy."