How Can Residential Design Reduce Crime Rates in the UK?

With the ever-growing concern over the safety of our streets, it is evident social anxieties have increased over the last 100 years; this is demonstrated through the distance we allow our children to walk unaccompanied. Our great-grandfathers were allowed to walk 6 miles in 1919, our grandfathers allowed to walk 1 mile in 1950, our parents allowed to walk ½ a mile in 1979, and now children of the street today only being allowed to the end of their street. (Gill, T 2021). As urban designers, we have a responsibility to create safer communities that allow people to thrive.

fig 1. RICS, ‘Can we design away crime?'(2023)

 What support is already in place?

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) is a toolkit made up of five main principles: natural surveillance, physical security, defensible space, maintenance, and movement control. (Greater Manchester Police, N.D.). This design strategy is supported by the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

Section 8 ‘Promoting healthy and safe communities’, paragraph 91, states that;

‘planning policies and decisions should aim to achieve healthy, inclusive, and safe places and beautiful buildings that…are safe and accessible so that crime and disorder, and the fear of crime, do not undermine the quality of life or community cohesion.’ (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, 2023). CPTED and the NPPF underpin the police security initiative ‘Secured by Design’ (SBD), which commits to bettering the security of buildings and the surrounding environment.

The broken window theory (Wilson and Kelling, 1982) expresses the festering disruption communities face when antisocial behaviour commits urban disorder by vandalising properties, thus leading to an increased crime rate and a sense of brokenness.’ This then leads individuals to further commit crimes in areas where there are broken windows, graffiti, poor levels of cleanliness, and less order, as there is no one to stop them. This theory suggested that maintaining and monitoring environments can prevent crime.

So how can residential design aid in reducing crime rates in the UK?

1. Natural Surveillance – ‘Eyes on the Ground’ 

This is a key factor to consider when designing, as it optimises the use of residents to spot antisocial or suspicious behaviour. Overlooked green spaces and reducing the amount of spots that could be used for hiding, such as recessed doorways and alcoves (The City of Red Deer, ND). Good lighting and clear sightlines increase the feeling of safety in a development, and the landscape can create defensible space; more on that later. Another way to incorporate natural surveillance in residential design is with corner buildings with active frontage on both elevations. These enhance passive policing of the streets they face (Skerningham Garden Village Design Code, 2024).

The two photos below show examples of bad and good practices of natural surveillance.

fig 2. & fig 3. Chandler, Arizona ‘Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design'(n.d)

2. Physical security 

Types of physical security, such as bollards, vehicle barriers, surveillance, perimeter protection, access control, and intrusion detection, are vital elements in keeping residents safe, and now designers are finding more innovative ways to incorporate these safety features into projects that do not hinder aesthetics. One consideration is to balance physical security with design by integrating security features like planters as barriers (Sloan Security Group, 2024) and blending security lighting as a tool for wayfinding.

3. Defensible space 

Internationally defensible space is crucial when protecting homesteads from wildfire, as it acts as a buffer zone between the danger to limit the spread of fire. In the western world, where wildfires aren’t as much of a concern, defensible space in residential design is a consideration that is less extreme, but the same theory still applies; it acts as a buffer zone between the danger. Alice Coleman (1985) theorised the importance of defensible space in design and popularised the term defensible space with an emphasis on the idea that bad ‘design does not determine anything… It increases the odds against which people have to struggle to preserve civilised standards’ (Utopia on Trial, 1985). Overall, if a household’s clear boundary line is visible, e.g., a clear fence line of a front garden, a criminal will be discouraged from entering the space due to the clear demarcations stipulating who it belongs to (Adam J. McKee, ND).

4. Maintenance 

Maintenance across areas where residential developments meet the public realm, council-owned sites can become a battle for well-maintained green spaces, overgrown green space, bin provisions, graffiti, abandoned units, and unsafe structures. The broken window theory (Wilson and Kelling, 1982) points to a solution of a good maintenance plan to reduce the levels of antisocial behaviours.

                      fig 4.  Hirst Park (Bea Chivers, 2024)

To conclude, I applied these different considerations to a live project in The Hirst, Ashington, and created the sketch above to communicate the ways to mitigate antisocial behaviour through residential design. Larger windows, defensible space with formalised frontages, improved lighting, lower vegetation for clear sight lines with integrated seating in active spaces to improve natural surveillance, new signage to encourage a ‘cared for space,’ and more territorial reinforcement. Using these tools in conjunction with other socio-economic factors can elevate a community’s spirit and ownership. Levels of antisocial behaviour should be getting picked up at early stages of analysis, and mitigation measures should be incorporated into residential design so crime rates in the UK can be reduced.