A DRIVE for better architectural design across the region is coming off the drawing board. SEEDA, the South East England Development Agency, announced at the MIPIM property show in Cannes, France, that it was setting up a design panel - and handed the job of choosing the best to Kent Architecture Centre.

KAC, based in Chatham Historic Dockyard, will recruit experts to vet major building projects. Local specialists will work with the Centre for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) to recruit the finest architects, surveyors and engineers for the panel.

Barry Shaw, KAC director and CABE commissioner, will head the project. Speaking in Cannes, he said: "We know that some of the best architects in the world work in London and live in our region, and one or two of them even live around Medway. The trick here is to get them out of their offices and to focus on where they live."

Anthony Dunnett, SEEDA chief executive hoped that most of the 30-strong panel would be under 40. He said: "We are looking for people with passion to improve the environment."

Every successful region in the world had good architecture, Mr Dunnett said. That in turn meant long term investment and greater prosperity. It also reduced crime, vandalism and graffiti, and made people more proud of where they lived.

Poor communities always went for quick answers. That often attracted people who only wanted a quick profit and did not stay to live with the consequences.

Meanwhile the architecture centre is to help set up two more similar centres across the region. Mr Dunnett said it was another example of Medway and Kent leading the way.