What counts as a “crap development” in the first place?
Student flats are normally cited as the main culprit – often resembling Soviet Khrushchyovka with “wacky” cladding – but they’re usually confined to Swansea or Cardiff.
In other urbanised parts of Wales, out-of-town retail parks and housing developments by volume housebuilders are often picked out. In rural Wales, it’s usually anything that sticks out like a sore thumb.
Perhaps one of the best definitions is a development that’s universally disliked to the point that there’s nobody left to defend it except those involved in building it.
In more practical terms, while it may include developments that make the streetscape worse/”architectural blight”, it’s not entirely down to architecture.
They may have limited or under-developed facilities. They may have issues with things like regular flooding, “fleeceholds” and unadopted roads. They are usually perceived to be excess to local requirements or built in a hurry (resulting in issues such as poor workmanship).
If they were cheap, it wouldn’t be as much of a problem (because you get what you pay for). But they’re usually not cheap.
