Much has been achieved in the five years since the publishing of the Farrell Review, a report on the state of the UK's architecture, but we can still do much more to improve our towns and cities, writes Terry Farrell.

It is five years since we published the Farrell Review of Architecture and the Built Environment. It is extraordinary to think how much has changed in the UK since then.
We talked about the housing crisis, but didn't expect it to get exponentially worse. We talked about action on climate change, which also appears to have gone backwards, or at least stood still. In its own small way though, the review has made a difference and its cumulative achievements have been impressive.
For me it shows the power of ideas, particularly when they are formed independently of party politics or professional biases. It shows how important it is to people to improve their everyday built environment and to make the ordinary better. Most of all, it shows how crucial it is to engage with a wider audience if you want to bring about meaningful change. When I was interviewed by Dezeen at the time, the article ran with the headline "architects don't affect things very much". In terms of architecture's influence within government, this was true at the time.
As a result of the Farrell Review however, architecture has moved out of the government's Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and into the Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG), a d...