Consultation and engagement

Consultation on a draft Housing Design Guide Supplementary Planning Document (SPD)

Start date: Thursday 23rd October 2025
End date: Thursday 4th December 2025

What are we consulting on?

We are inviting residents, developers, architects, and stakeholders to comment on the draft Housing Design Guide Supplementary Planning Document (SPD).

The Housing Design Guide is a new SPD to ensure that all new homes and housing developments in Liverpool meet high standards of design, sustainability, and liveability. It supports the Liverpool Local Plan and will be a material consideration in planning decisions.

The SPD comprises two documents:

  1. A Housing Design Guide
  2. A Characterisation Study

Housing Design Guide

The Housing Design Guide sets out clear expectations across housing typologies for the design of new homes, conversions to new homes and household extensions. It aims to:

  • promote healthier, fairer communities through better housing design.
  • enable housing development to reflect Liverpool’s unique character and heritage.
  • embed health equity into housing design, as part of Liverpool’s commitment as a Marmot City.
  • support the city’s ambition to achieve net zero carbon.

The Design Guide sets clear design criteria and guidelines on issues such as:

  • Acknowledging local character and surrounding context
  • Applying appropriate mass and form to buildings
  • The layout of housing developments and homes
  • Daylight and sunlight
  • Shared and private space
  • Sustainable design and construction
  • Household extensions and boundary treatments
  • Refuse storage
  • Car and cycle parking

The guidance will indicate to applicants the issues considered by the council when assessing planning applications and will provide council officers with criteria to assess planning applications against.

Characterisation Study

The Characterisation Study supports the Design Guide and provides a baseline analysis of Liverpool’s housing context which has helped inform the overall vision and guidance. It identifies broad but distinct housing character areas across the city and describes their unique characteristics.

Consultation documents

How to comment

Submit your feedback online via Citizen Space

A paper version of the draft SPD and supporting documents are available in Central Library and at the reception desk in the Cunard Building, Brunswick Street, L3 1AW.

What happens to my views?

All information received will be protected under the General Data Protection Regulation (2018). All individual responses will be treated as confidential and non-identifiable. 

We ask for your details on the survey so we can contact you to discuss your comments, if we need to. 

Comments from individuals may be included in the consultation report, but your name and details will not appear next to them. All representations from an individual or agent on behalf of an organisation or company will be identifiable by the name of the organisation or company only. 

Information will be held securely by the council directly or via the platform Citizen Space. It will be used solely for the purposes of this consultation and will be held until at least the end of any legal challenge period. 

What happens next?

Responses to this consultation will be summarised in a Housing Design Guide SPD consultation report which will be published on this website. 

Subject to approval, the final SPD will be adopted and used to guide future housing development in Liverpool.

Further information

For further information about this consultation email planning.engagement@liverpool.gov.uk and include ‘Housing Design Guide’ in the subject line.