Co-authors

Prof James T. White MRTPI (University of Glasgow) and Dr Gareth James (University of Glasgow)

Research summary

This paper investigates the framing and implementation of a distinct placemaking agenda that emerged in Scotland after devolution, which is often upheld for its ambitious commitment to ‘design value’ in pursuit of social and environmental policy goals. More widely, it aims to understand how design policy aims and objectives are communicated, interpreted and implemented in local practice. It traces the evolution of Scotland’s post-devolution planning and urban design policies and highlights their relative divergence from the other UK nations, before examining the implementation of the placemaking agenda on-the-ground in a series of housing development case studies.

The research utilised a robust methodology combining interview and survey data collected with national and local informants, extensive archival research using policy and planning records, and direct observations of the built environment. Thematic content analysis of the evidence reveals how a distinct and progressive commitment to placemaking has emerged in Scotland, but that a series of stubborn barriers to implementation have prevented the full realisation of this agenda.

The conclusions are significant for theory and practice, by helping to understand the context-dependent cultures of implementation within which ‘design governance’ and placemaking occur. The paper therefore contends that improved outcomes cannot be achieved by policy change alone, and instead require more substantial rethinking of planning and placemaking practice. The conclusions raise important questions for placemaking within a discretionary planning context, where design policy implementation is negotiated in the face of numerous intense pressures, not least the pursuit of housing delivery targets and development viability.

Read the research

Co-author: Dr Tim White (King’s College London)

Research summary

Land value capture is central to the role of spatial planning in helping the government meet its housing and infrastructure objectives. It has therefore risen up the political agenda over the last decade and is currently the subject of ongoing debate in the context of development viability, affordable housing and the delivery of a new generation of New Towns. It has been the focus of two recent government committee inquiries and forms a significant part of the recent public consultation on the revised NPPF. It is, therefore, highly relevant to contemporary planning debates.

However, while contemporary policy discourse on land value capture has largely focused on technical questions, our research is distinct in that it seeks to come to a critical and systematic understanding of the broader political-economic currents and power relations that structure it. Underpinned by historical analysis of over 100 parliamentary debates combined with over 50 semi-structured interviews, our research therefore represents a sustained, serious and rigorous investigation into how power, politics and ideology combine in this contested policy area to shape planning and development outcomes.

Our research shows that land value capture manages the structural flaws of the existing land, housing and development settlement without resolving them. Land value capture in the planning system is no panacea. While there are policy adjustments that can be made to improve outcomes in the short-term, we argue that what is truly needed are more ambitious social-redistributive measures involving land values combined with a wider range of less speculative development models.

Read the research

Co-authors

Doris Andoni, Slavche Trpeski, Michele Lertora

Research summary

Commissioned by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) at the request of the Government of Montenegro, the Country Profile on Urban Development, Housing and Land Management represents the first comprehensive international analysis of Montenegro's planning, housing and land management systems since independence. Professor Golubchikov served as Lead Author of the Country Profile.

The research advances Montenegro's planning and housing agenda by supporting existing strategies, including the Spatial Plan until 2040 and the Housing Policy Strategy until 2034, while also informing policies still in development. The research addresses urgent and interconnected spatial planning challenges: sustainable urban development, housing affordability, regional disparities, informal construction and institutional reform, at a critical juncture in Montenegro's development trajectory.

Methodologically, the Country Profile draws on a systematic review of policy, statistical and academic evidence, complemented by semi-structured interviews with over 130 experts across government, academia, professional practice and civil society at national and local levels. This multi-stakeholder approach ensured analytical depth and direct relevance to planning policy and practice. The findings deliver actionable recommendations to help translate economic growth into more affordable housing, more liveable and inclusive cities, and more balanced territorial development.

The report establishes a substantial evidence base for policymakers, practitioners, researchers and the wider public. Its launch in Podgorica in March 2026, attended by the UNECE Executive Secretary and three national ministers, signalled high-level policy uptake. Publication in both English and Montenegrin, together with formal inclusion in the Montenegrin Government's policy registry, strengthens its accessibility and practical impact.

Read the research

Co-authors

Prof. Francesco Pilla (University College Dublin), Assist Prof. Italo Sousa de Sena (University College Dublin), Dr. Ungku Norani Sonet (University College Dublin), Dr. Tiago Tamagusko (University College Dublin), Ms. Anastasiia Galaktionova (University College Dublin), Ms. Aisling Jackman (University College Dublin)

Research summary

REALLOCATE Mobility is a four-year, EU-funded initiative led by UCD that demonstrates how inclusive, sustainable mobility can be achieved by reallocating space and resources through community-led processes. The project partners with 10 European cities (testing 15 pilots) engaging residents, local authorities, transport operators, and civil society in co-design workshops, interviews, focus groups, walking audits, participatory mapping, and citizen science to reallocate street space, towards walking, cycling, and accessible public transport.

 Action-based research in REALLOCATE led to scalable actions: reconfiguring street space to create protected bike lanes, car-free zones, improved crossings, and safer routes to schools. In the last year, wide engagement was conducted in several cities. For example, UCD team had a direct role in the cases of Zagreb and Utrecht, with engagement documented on local authorities websites and resulting in recently published academic papers on vulnerable users-centred traffic safety. Additional reports comprise co-design guidelines and performance indicators to track social, environmental, and economic co-benefits. An open online knowledge base hosts case studies, newsletters, and reports to support replication and policy uptake. Project's dissemination includes policy briefs, practitioner guides, and webinars sharing practical lessons with planners, policymakers, and communities.

Results show improved access to vulnerable road users, reductions in car dependency, with transferable models for city-wide roll-out. REALLOCATE champions co-production with vulnerable groups, strengthens cross-sector collaboration, and provides evidence-based mobility solutions that align with climate, health, and social equity objectives. The approach offers a transferable blueprint for cities seeking to reallocate mobility resources toward more inclusive, sustainable futures.

Read the research

Co-author

Dr Brian Wedd AssocRTPI (Cardiff University)

Research summary

This report establishes a benchmark of digital planning practices in Wales, and the capacity of local planning authorities (LPAs) to engage with digital planning. A desktop review of existing policies, online survey, and two focus groups with professional planners in Wales revealed significant variation in the technical capacity of LPAs to adopt more advanced digital planning technologies. The study also found that there is currently no dedicated digital planning strategy or standards for digital practices in Wales, and while good practice examples exist, there are limited opportunities for planners to share and learn from them.

Despite the challenges, Welsh planners are optimistic about the potential of digital tools to improve planning outcomes, increase efficiency and transparency, and make planning processes more inclusive.

The report recommends coordinated national action to embed digital planning across Wales. Central to this is the creation of a Digital Planning Governance Framework to standardise data, systems, and processes, supported by a national leadership body involving Welsh Government, LPAs, RTPI Cymru, and digital partners.

The research argues that a Wales-wide spatial data infrastructure should be developed to host consistent, accessible planning and GIS data. Collaboration and shared learning must also be strengthened through peer networks and targeted CPD-led training. Digital tools should be used to streamline and automate planning processes, improve transparency, and enhance engagement while balancing the important role of the planner as decision-maker. Finally, planning legislation should be updated to mandate digital-first, standardised, and open practices, backed by sustained funding, infrastructure, and skills development.

Read the research

Co-authors

Daniel Fitzpatrick (UCL), Michael Short MRTPI (UCL), Nicola Livingstone (University of Glasgow), Sahar Nava (UCL), Irene Manzini Ceinar (UCL), Sarah Goldzweig (UCL), William Turner (UCL)

Research summary

In recent decades, many social housing estates in London have been demolished and replaced by mixed-tenure developments. These schemes have been strongly contested by residents and campaigners, who argue that the schemes produce displacement, loss of social connections, and loss of socially rented homes. These alliances of residents and campaigners occasionally include researchers.

This paper explores how co-design and participatory action research approaches can contest top-down demolition and redevelopment of social housing estates. It uses Alton Estate, in South-West London, which Wandsworth Council planned to demolish and redevelop, as a case study.

Through a partnership with resident-led group Alton Action, a team of researchers co-designed an alternative approach to regeneration with local communities, building on collectively produced evidence and focusing on improving the neighbourhood using the existing built environment. Through a series of knowledge exchanges and co-design workshops, communities and researchers co-produced the Alton Estate People's Plan, a community vision to improve the neighbourhood. This process empowered residents to participate in decision-making regarding the future of their neighbourhood.

Read the research

Co-authors

Richard Dunning (University of Liverpool), Tatiana Moreira de Souza (University of Liverpool), Alexander Petrov (University of Liverpool), David Shaw (University of Liverpool), Jane Healey Brown FRTPI (Arup), Alice Bennett MRTPI (Arup), Anna Bevington MRTPI (Arup) and Marc Watterson MRTPI (Arup).

Research summary

The research conducted by the University of Liverpool and Arup contributes to a stronger understanding of how the global sustainability and urban agenda is shaping planning practice in different international contexts. It was grounded in engagement with the global planning community, spanning public, private and third sector organisations.

It draws on an extensive global literature review, survey data from Arup's international planning network, interviews with planning professionals and planning institutes across four continents, and a panel held with the presidents of three planning institutes at the Royal Town Planning Institute's (RTPI) Planning Conference, 2025. 

Its findings reveal that while the global planning agenda is increasingly shaping planning practice around the world, its influence varies significantly across regions, different sectors, and levels of government. A key message of the research is that whilst the influence of the global agenda for planning is often implicit, cases of explicit linking of the SDGs to planning systems and practice do exist. However, whilst capacity for related data collection and monitoring is strong in many places, this does not always translate into application on the ground. Engagement with the global agenda for planning is also driven by different motivations, including concerns with image and reputation, and application can reflect a combination of top down, domestic and horizontal "country-to-country" approaches. 

The report concludes that whether it is being applied explicitly or implicitly, the global planning agenda can help underline the relevance and legitimacy of planning and provide a framework for sharing good global planning practices.

Read the research

Co-authors

Prashant Kumar, University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom

Research summary

This review proposed a resilient urbanism framework, a set of spatial metrics for climate resilient sustainable neighbourhoods and indicators to assess the success of a design proposal or intervention. The metrics and indicators may have potential for improving urban design practice and the regulatory frameworks influencing where and what is built. Finally, the review highlights knowledge gaps on climate change hazards in the records for Africa, Asia, Australasia, North, Central and South America, and Europe, requiring further research. Small Islands are unrepresented, so related climate hazards are highlighted for academic researcher consideration.

Key takeaways:

• A new climate resilient sustainable urbanism framework aids urban transformation.
• Urban design principles resolve climate change hazards across multiple countries.
• An urban neighbourhood design unit can be scaled to varied population densities.
• Indicators enable assessment of urban settlement creation/transformation success.
• Climate change requires retrofitting existing and designing new urban settlements.

Read the research

Co-authors

Aura-Luciana Istrate (School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin); Francesco Pilla (School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin)

Research summary

This article examines how spatial planning and community-based governance can better address urban heat vulnerability in Xi'an, China, under Sustainable Development Goal 11. Urban heat is increasingly recognised as a slow-onset climate hazard, yet vulnerable communities often experience it through poor housing quality, limited cooling infrastructure, economic pressure and weak participation in local decision-making.

The study combines reconnaissance fieldwork and resident surveys across formal and informal vulnerable communities, including old communities, urban villages, shantytowns and other low-quality housing contexts. It applies the Pressure-and-Release model and structural equation modelling to examine how exposure, cooling demand, awareness, community-level services, socio-economic pressure and community-based governance interact. 

The findings show that heat-coping resources are largely unavailable, community engagement remains limited and policies are often disconnected from residents' everyday needs. Community-based governance reduces socio-economic pressure, but does not significantly improve community-level services or heat-risk awareness. Governance effectiveness and policy urgency also vary across and within communities, with urban villages and gated commercial housing showing stronger perceived governance capacity, while shantytowns experience heightened vulnerability.

The article contributes to spatial planning research by showing why SDG11 implementation requires locally sensitive, community-based evidence rather than only top-down indicators. It provides policy-relevant recommendations for safe and affordable housing, inclusive urbanisation, disaster risk reduction, infrastructure upgrading and continuous grassroots engagement.

The research advances understanding of how planning systems can align residents' needs, institutional capacity and climate adaptation in vulnerable communities.

Read the research

Co-authors

Prof Nick Gallent FRTPI (University College London) and Dr Li Zhang (Tongji University)

Research summary

This study addresses a question of growing relevance to spatial planning: how planning can respond to rural marginalisation in contexts where many rural regions have come to be treated as left-behind places amid state withdrawal and enduring urban bias. Using China's Rural Revitalization Strategy as a theory-generating case, it develops the concept of 'neo-exogenous development' to explain how spatially targeted, area-based programmes can reconnect state capacity, territorial planning, and community action.

The research is grounded in a critical engagement with international rural development theory, especially debates on exogenous, endogenous, and neo-endogenous development, and identifies their limits in explaining state-driven yet networked forms of rural transformation. Empirically, it focuses on Modern Agriculture Zones, a spatially-targeted, area-based planning intervention through which Rural Revitalisation Strategy is translated into local territorial governance and development.

Methodologically, the research combines multi-scalar policy analysis with pilot studies, four rounds of fieldwork, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, on-site observation, and triangulation with local records across three contrasting village cases in eastern and western China, enabling a structured analysis of how national policy is translated into local interventions and outcomes.

Its key outcome is a new framework showing how state intervention and community activation can interact through area-based initiatives to channel investment, build local capacity, and retain development value locally, while also exposing the tensions, inequalities, and fragilities such interventions may produce. In doing so, the research extends planning scholarship beyond accounts of state retrenchment and community self-organisation, offering insight into how area-based interventions can respond to left-behind rural places.

Read the research

Research summary

This dissertation examines the redevelopment of former Sites of Institutional Confinement and Abuse in Ireland, focusing on the ethical, political, and planning challenges these spaces present. It argues that such sites are not neutral development opportunities but deeply contested landscapes shaped by trauma, memory, and historical injustice.

Using a qualitative, trauma-informed approach, the research draws on professional interviews, survivor testimonies, advocacy materials, and media discourse. Through reflexive thematic analysis, it identifies key tensions between economic development priorities and the ethical obligation to acknowledge and preserve histories of abuse. 

A central finding is that Ireland's planning system operates within a 'procedural vacuum' lacking clear frameworks to guide the redevelopment of sites associated with institutional trauma. The study highlights that survivors are frequently marginalised within consultation processes, with their voices often secondary to developer interests and state-led agendas. Planning decisions tend to prioritise functional and economic outcomes, risking the erasure or commodification of traumatic pasts. This reflects broader issues of power, where institutional and market actors shape how memory is represented in space. The research also explores community responses, legal constraints, and gaps in heritage protection, demonstrating inconsistencies in how historically sensitive sites are treated across Ireland.

Ultimately, the dissertation calls for a shift toward survivor-centred, ethically grounded planning practices. It argues that redevelopment should contribute to spatial justice, ensuring these sites become places of remembrance and learning rather than symbols of continued silencing.

Research summary

This dissertation reinterprets Ian McHarg's ecological planning philosophy for the 21st century by integrating contemporary Earth system science and planning pedagogy. Set against the backdrop of the accelerating 'Metacrisis' (the convergence of climate change, biodiversity loss, and institutional breakdown) the research examines how McHarg's formative Design with Nature principles can be adapted to operate within the scientifically defined limits of the Planetary Boundaries framework.

Using a qualitative, conceptual methodology grounded in Critical Realism and Ecological Modernisation Theory, the study synthesises three strands of knowledge: McHarg's ecological design principles, the Planetary Boundaries model, and the core educational frameworks of the Irish Planning Institute (IPI), Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), and Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP). Through comparative analysis and thematic synthesis, the research evaluates points of convergence, divergence, and complementarity between these frameworks.

The key finding is that while McHarg's landscape-based, systems-oriented approach remains methodologically powerful, it requires updating to address global biophysical thresholds, planetary-scale feedbacks, and contemporary concerns around justice and governance. By aligning McHarg's philosophy with boundary-informed, values-led planning education, the dissertation proposes a pedagogical framework that equips planners with planetary literacy, systems thinking capabilities, and ethical reflexivity.

The research contributes to planning theory and education by offering a coherent model for planning within limits, positioning planners as facilitators of resilience, regeneration, and planetary stewardship. It concludes with recommendations for transforming planning education and professional practice to better support resilient urban development within Earth's ecological boundaries.

Research summary

This research critically examines the evolution of the neighbourhood principle in Crawley New Town, assessing its relevance to contemporary spatial planning. At a time of renewed focus on sustainable development, active travel and a new generation of New Towns, the study revisits a foundational planning concept, rooted in the Garden City and Neighbourhood Unit theories, to evaluate its long-term performance under changing planning priorities.

A mixed-methods approach combines archival and policy analysis, comparative spatial case studies, and autoethnographic reflection. This enables a longitudinal understanding of how the neighbourhood principle has been interpreted from the 1949 master plan to recent developments, capturing both formal planning intentions and lived spatial experience. 

The findings show that while the neighbourhood principle remains a durable structuring element in Crawley's urban form, its outcomes have diverged significantly. Early neighbourhoods more closely embodied principles of self-sufficiency and walkability, while later car-orientated development progressively eroded local service integration and accessibility. More recent schemes demonstrate a partial return to these principles, adapted to contemporary policy priorities. By situating these findings alongside the 15-Minute City, the research demonstrates the continued relevance of the neighbourhood principle as a foundational planning model rather than a superseded concept.

The research demonstrates that the challenge for contemporary planning is not to reinvent neighbourhood design, but to apply enduring principles more consistently to deliver genuinely walkable, socially cohesive, and resilient communities.

Research summary

This study explores the inequalities experienced within cities on the basis of gender, touching upon intersectionality and the current political climate surrounding transgender rights. Urban planning and policy often recites 'inclusive planning', however, inequalities are still felt by women, girls and gender nonconforming people on a daily basis.

This dissertation looked to explore specific inequalities faced by these groups in cities, and how the role of the built environment facilitates this. Using data from surveys, professional interviews and site observations, the researcher devised a set of recommendations to be implemented within education as well as the planning industry.

From the analysis, the researcher found a prioritisation of the fast-moving, typically male commuter, which does not consider the dependent urban user. This dissertation sought to increase awareness of adaptations women, girls and gender nonconforming people must make in order to live in cities.

These recommendations, curated by the researcher, aim to reduce these inequalities and ensure that inclusive design is achieved, to benefit all urban users. Incorporating these recommendations within urban planning not only benefits people on the basis of gender, but also physical and mental abilities, sexuality and race.

Co-author

Dr Charles Goode (University of Birmingham)

Research summary

The paper ‘An Evaluation of the Green Belt in an Era of Reform: A Spatial Analysis of the Solihull Borough’ provides a timely contribution to the evidence base informing Green Belt reform. Published in a special issue of the Journal of Urban Regeneration & Renewal, the research responds to calls for a more technical, evidence-led Green Belt policy approach, reflected in recent and emerging NPPF reforms, including the concept of the Grey Belt.

The paper undertakes a quantitative spatial analysis of the social and environmental characteristics of land within the Solihull Borough Green Belt, located in the West Midlands. This local–regional case study reflects challenges faced across England, where development pressures intersect with the political sensitivity of the designation.

A new multi-criteria spatial analysis methodology is developed, integrating spatial datasets to audit the developability of the Green Belt. In doing so, the research addresses a longstanding gap in Green Belt scholarship, which has predominantly focused on qualitative interpretations of policy purposes with limited socio-environmental explicitness.

The findings demonstrate variation in spatial attributes, including areas that are sustainably located and relatively unconstrained by environmental designations. Rather than identifying specific development sites, the paper’s contribution lies in expanding the methodological tools available for Green Belt assessment. The framework is replicable and adaptable, offering value for local planning and combined authorities.

It provides a robust, evidence‑led approach that can support the preparation of Spatial Development Strategies, enabling more transparent/consistent Green Belt reviews and helps mediate the relationship between technical analysis and politics.

Read the research

Research summary

This research, prepared for the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales (NICW), investigates the systemic barriers and enabling factors shaping infrastructure delivery across Wales. It addresses a critical challenge: despite strong legislative frameworks and ambitious sustainability goals, major infrastructure projects frequently encounter delays, uncertainty, or fail to progress.

The study adopts a robust mixed-methods approach, combining a comprehensive literature review (over 120 sources), a stakeholder survey of nearly 100 organisations, targeted interviews, and multi-stakeholder focus groups. These insights were triangulated to develop hypotheses, which were subsequently tested through five in-depth case study roundtables across transport, energy, and flood infrastructure. A structured root cause analysis enabled systematic identification of cross-cutting issues across six key themes: planning and permitting; the political environment; stakeholder engagement; funding and economics; skills and capacity; and interdependencies with wider infrastructure.

The findings identify persistent, system-level barriers, including fragmented and under-resourced consenting processes, political instability, short-term funding cycles, skills shortages, and poor integration across infrastructure systems. In contrast, effective early engagement, strong and consistent leadership, and integrated, place-based approaches are identified as critical enablers of successful delivery.

The research advances understanding by providing a holistic, system-level diagnosis of infrastructure delivery challenges within a devolved governance context, grounded in real-world project experience. It identifies eight priority actions for Welsh Government, including improving long-term policy certainty, reforming consenting processes, investing in skills, and strengthening data-sharing and collaboration.

Overall, the research provides actionable, evidence-based recommendations to support more effective, timely, and coordinated infrastructure delivery in Wales.

Read the research