<p>Former Barton Willmore senior partner Gareth Capner has been appointed chairman of the Housing Design Awards, replacing Graham Pye who died last year and who had chaired the Awards for 14 years.</p> <p>This year the Awards will be supported by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors as well as RIBA and the RTPI.</p> <p>The Department of Health is also partnering on the Awards and joining forces with CLG to introduce a new award reflecting better design for housing for older people. The award will be made to the best "Homes for an ageing population".</p> <p>As before awards will be made both to schemes which have received planning by March 15th 2010 but which are not yet complete, as well as to developments which are built out within the last two years are partly or wholly occupied. Entries can be made online from Tuesday February 2nd at <a href="http://www.designforhomes.org">www.designforhomes.org</a>. The closing date for entries is Friday March 5th</p>