English Partnerships has agreed to extend the deadline for stage two of the Design for Manufacture competition, in response to shortlisted teams’ concerns about the tight timescale for submitting detailed entries. <p></p><p>Trevor Beattie, EP director of corporate strategy, told Housebuilder: "Bidders have told us that more time would enable them to submit better quality bids and we have taken the decision to move the deadline back two weeks to July 15. </p><p>"I thought long and hard about this, but the competition is about quality, and we will get stronger submissions this way. I couldn’t turn my back on that." </p><p>Deputy prime minister John Prescott announced the 33-team shortlist at OffSite2005; he said: "Originally it was predicted that between 15-25 firms would move to this next stage, but since the quality of entries was so high that number has easily been surpassed." </p><p>Speaking at a National Housing Forum event, housing minister Yvette Cooper commented: "The high profile competition has raised the issue of design. But while some of the entries are fantastic, others you wouldn’t want to live in." Cooper told Housebuilder: "We see working with private developers as critical in increasing supply. Because innovation has to come from private developers; …