Neighbourhood Planning rights should be used by local communities to lead on developments on their own terms and there should be greater formal recognition of community priorities and requirements in the planning process, which would include social aspirations, environmental values and financial stakes.
Launched by the Minister for Local Government Greg Clark, the report also says that neighbourhood planning should be led by the values of local people. Residents should be able to decide their local priorities in a collaborative process enabled by experts such as architects, together with local businesses, developers and the local authority, and formalised in a ‘Neighbourhood Value Agreement’.
The report urges government to consider the potential for a 'Community Right to Invest in Real Estate' and recommends a consultation should be carried out into how local communities can capitalise on future gains of the property development sector.
The report is critical of past neighbourhood consultation processes, which it describes as 'tokenistic' and ‘tickbox exercises'. To avoid frustration and distrust in planning objectives from local residents, the report advocates a process which involves support and advice for communities from impartial experts.
The report also says that successful place making and participation in the planning process can be 'captured' in terms of public savings on costs associated with anti-social behaviour and community fragmentation.
The ResPublica and RIBA report, recommends that the benefits of good design and meaningful community engagement should be recognised as a measurable social outcome and that the government should appoint an independent panel of experts to define the metrics and structures required to capture the social value created though the neighbourhood planning process.
It also believes that an evidence base from Local Authorities should be used by the government in order to extend the 'community budgets' programme and to create a new ‘Total Neighbourhood’ approach and the government should make a 'Neighbourhood Partnership Agreement' between residents, local business, local authorities, developers, and design professionals a statutory requirement for every Neighbourhood Plan.
‘The Localism Act presents some unprecedented opportunities for communities to engage in local activism. In particular, neighbourhood planning can present a turning point for community led development and design,’ said Phillip Blond, director of ResPublica.
‘Still, it is only by engaging communities in a genuine, meaningful, collaboration and partnership, rather than a formulaic consultation, that the potential of neighbourhood planning can be fulfilled,’ he explained.
‘Through such a meaningful partnership, we can push forward a more radical localism, with a sense of empowerment really felt across communities. This community empowerment can lead to even more robust forms of local control through extending community ownership and opening up the possibility for communities to invest in real estate,’ he added.
The costs of bad planning and design are vast, according to Harry Rich, RIBA chief executive. ‘Meaningful community led planning helps to achieve better design solutions with greater social and economic value and this will only happen through skilled collaboration between communities and design professionals, such as architects,’ he said.
‘As this report clearly sets out, more support and funding changes will be needed to pave the way if the government's Localism aspirations are to become an achievable reality,’ he added.
