Delivering locally relevant impacts via the planning, housing and regeneration process
Chris Standish is Chair of RTPI Yorkshire
Janet spotted me in the Library in Oldham. In between meetings in our office next door, I’d sneaked in to have a nosy at the CV writing and job support class that was being delivered with local residents.
She seemed very animated as she walked over and as she approached, her smile put me at ease as she told me (with huge amounts of love and pride) that the previous evening, she’d read a bedtime story to her kids for the first time.
This wonderful lady had bravely signed up for some ‘adult literacy’ sessions that the housing association I was then working for had put on and she’d nailed it – she was unlocked and joyful.
That’s how I remember it 10 years or so later.
There are other stories from similar folk in that location and over in Fleetwood too, where in addition to supporting the creation of the Fleetwood ParkRun we worked with local GP’s and the brilliant Health Creation Alliance to generate hyper-local transformational impacts and social prescribing.
What has this got to do with planning housing and regeneration though ? Those examples were all directly linked to planned housing led regeneration schemes. They didn’t come about because of a specific planning policy or requirement per se, rather an approach that put locally relevant impact at the centre.
Housing associations and their strand of activity known as ‘community investment’ can have hugely positive impacts in places.
So too the excellent work of the Big Local network
Government is helping in a number of ways, including the Pride in Place programme that looks support 284 communities across the country.
How can we do more to understand the needs and opportunities of local groups, residents and anchor institutions and empower them into the planning housing and regeneration process to bake-in locally relevant outcomes for more people like Janet, and in the process, create successful sustainable places ?
Effective community engagement linked to social impact provides the key.
Actively listening to folk, creating new social capital, building trust and delivering social impact at all stages in the process can provide a clear outcomes lens to inform all aspects of the planning process, from land allocation all the way through to practical completion.
Using the opportunity of growth and housing led regeneration to unlock potential of people and place is a great thing to aim for and a flavour of what Homes England is doing in this space can be found here.
Community engagement can be a bridge linking planning with social value, equality and diversity. Undertaking equality impact assessments. Submitting social value statements alongside planning applications. Empowering people and local groups to inform and directly benefit from every single stage in the planning process provides a wonderful opportunity for change, impact and transformation.
All this has a direct link to RTPI President Jan Bessell's focus for her term of office; Planning with Purpose. Policy – yes, but also purpose. Purpose for all planners to refocus and re-energise around impact through community engagement.
