UK minister for housing Kit Malthouse has defended the Building Better Building Beautiful Commission, calling on architects to work with him to resist bland, developer-led housing.
Speaking to Dezeen, Malthouse asked for the architectural profession to "meet me halfway" to push developers to "allow beauty into their work".
He said the point of the government commission chaired by Roger Scruton has been missed by British architects, who have criticised it for attempting to reignite the divide between proponents of traditional and modern architecture.
Malthouse, who was appointed minister of state for housing in July 2018, said that working together architects and the government could collaborate to build houses people want. "Post the initial volley of attacks upon me, what I urged was for architects to accept that part of the secret of success is to build what the public like," he said. 
"What would be great is to move the conversation away from a confrontation into a collaboration for beauty."
Communities "need to like what's being built"
The government commission aims to address the UK housing crisis and the lack of new-build affordable homes.
"If I'm going to build 300,000 houses, I need local communities to accept them. And that means they need to like what's being built," said Malthouse, who is the Conservative MP for north west Hampshire.
"We're putting 45 million quid into the house building industry...