Work is cut out

So, Michael Gove is going to level up the country in 2022.

It’s not just north of London that is run down and depressing: all over the country we have been subjected to awful development, driven by weak planning decisions, government targets and developers’ profits.

My wife and I live in a road whose houses were built in the 1950s.

There are a few detached houses but mostly semis. There are: grass verges, front and back gardens, on-site parking, large rooms and aesthetically-pleasing house designs. We are very fortunate.

Our daughter lives in Southsea in a 100-year-old artisan’s house which does not have all of our advantages but is of gorgeous design.

When I look at what has been built since about the ’60s, it is very depressing. Little boxes and multistorey flats – all with no architectural merit, no parking provision, no defensible space and precious little in the way of a garden.

This scenario continues in modern times, driven by the idiotic government targets, but with a new twist.

Houses are now built in little cul-desacs with a mixture of finishes: bricks of different colours, plastic cladding and render – all tossed in to make it interesting. If you have to make it interesting, it is, of course, boring!

There is still little in the way of parking, gardens or generous room sizes.

There is no loft space as pre-constructed frames are the order of the day and buildings are too close to the road.

Apart from the fact that so many of our fields have been lost to the imperative of house building, we have been let down by the local and planning authorities who do not enforce quality. Mr Gove has his work cut out!

Alec Matthews Parkside, Bedhampton