Nicholas Boys Smith MBE (born 1 March 1975) is an author, researcher and campaigner, best known as the founding Director of Create Streets, an independent research institute that campaigns for an increase in what it describes as ‘gentle development’, subscribing to ideas of the New Urbanism and New Classical Architecture movements.[1]
Nicholas Boys Smith | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Peterhouse, Cambridge |
| Occupation(s) | Campaigner, Researcher |
| Organization | Create Streets |
| Movement | New Urbanism |
Many of Create Streets’ ideas are now being embedded in national and local planning policy[2] and Boys Smith has been widely recognised as greatly influential over the UK government's policy in this area,[3] being described as the Conservative's ‘Building Design Tsar’.[4][5]
Education edit
Grandson of John Boys Smith, vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Boys Smith was educated at Westminster School and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he read history, taking a double first and an MPhil with distinction.[6] While at university, he was President of the Cambridge Union.
Career edit
Out of university Boys Smith worked at the Conservative Research Department, including as an adviser on welfare policy to the Conservative social security secretary, Peter Lilley. He then spent a period of time as a McKinsey consultant and an investment banker at Lloyds. In 2006 he advised George Osborne, then shadow chancellor, on tax policy.[7]
Boys Smith set up the think tank Create Streets in 2012 ‘out of frustration with the low quality of too much recent development and of irrational decision-making.’[8] The ‘public genesis’ of the organisation came through a 2013 report authored by Boys Smith and Alex Morton, titled ‘Create Streets’, co-published with Policy Exchange.[9]
Boys Smith has since co-chaired the British Government's ‘Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission’ with Roger Scruton, publishing in 2020 its final report ‘Living With Beauty’.[10] As of 2024 he serves as chair of the ‘Office for Place’ within the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.[11]
In addition he is a Commissioner of Historic England[12] and a senior research fellow at the University of Buckingham.[13] He writes extensively on development, planning and the links between design, wellbeing, value, sustainability and public support. Boys Smith's writing has appeared in the Spectator, Evening Standard, Times, Sunday Times, Telegraph and Guardian.[14]
In 2022 he published his first book, ‘No Free Parking’, a history of London's built environment, focusing on places appearing in the London version of the game Monopoly.[15]
In 2024 Boys Smith was awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours List for services to planning and design.[16]
Works edit
- "Create Streets" (PDF). (2013, Policy Exchange & Create Streets, With Alex Morton)
- "Living With Beauty" (PDF). (2020, UK Government, With Roger Scruton)
- No Free Parking (2022, Blink Publishing, ISBN 978-1789465389)
References edit
- ^ "Our Story". Create Streets. Create Streets.
- ^ "'Tame' wide British roads and replace them with boulevards of homes, says thinktank". The Guardian. The Guardian.
- ^ "Nicholas Boys Smith: 'A bit of controversy forces you to have the conversation'". Building.co.uk. Building.
- ^ "England's green belt can't stay entirely untouched for ever, building design tsar says". The Guardian. The Guardian.
- ^ "We must build for people, not cars". The Times. The Times.
- ^ "Nicholas Boys Smith: 'A bit of controversy forces you to have the conversation'". Building.co.uk. Building.
- ^ "England's green belt can't stay entirely untouched for ever, building design tsar says". The Guardian. The Guardian.
- ^ "Our Story". Create Streets. Create Streets.
- ^ "Should London embrace the vision of Create Streets?". The Guardian. The Guardian.
- ^ "'Living With Beauty' Report Published" (PDF). UK Government. UK Government.
- ^ "Office for Place Launch". UK Government. UK Government.
- ^ "Appointment of New Commissioners". Historic England. Historic England.
- ^ "Boys-Smith - Biography" (PDF). Leeds Civic Trust.
- ^ "Don't let the relentless 'march of modernism' destroy our heritage". The Telegraph. The Telegraph.
- ^ "No Free Parking by Nicholas Boys Smith review". The Times. The Times.
- ^ "Boys Smith Receives MBE". Building Design Online. Building Design.