Knowledge

Outcome Indicators for Spatial Planning in England

Outcomes Indicators

The Department of Communities and Local Government and the RTPI commissioned this research to explore how indicators can be used to assess and improve the contribution of spatial planning to the delivery of sustainable development. It was carried out by a research team from the Centre for Urban Policy Studies at the University of Manchester and the Department of Town and Regional Planning at the University of Manchester.

The study was undertaken in the context of a new set of performance indicators for local government and the development of new guidelines for annual monitoring. It sets out an approach to conceptualising and using indicators to support the forging of new local development frameworks and their co-ordination with sub-regional, regional, and ultimately national, objectives and strategies for development. Significantly it aims to use data and indicators that have already been developed in order to promote a consistent and pragmatic basis for developing monitoring and evaluation.

The indicator framework set out in the report is designed to enable local authorities and regional planners, and their partners, to gain a much clearer picture of the overall effect their spatial policies can have on communities, the economy and the environment.

The researchers have used the English national planning policy guidance to scope their framework. This framework can be used to assess the contribution of spatial planning to place-making outcomes through the bundling or clustering of relevant indicators. Users can add further relevant measures according to the specific priorities of their area. This approach is specifically aimed at