Meaningful engagement with the people who live, work, or use the buildings and places we create or regenerate is quite possibly reaching a tipping point. In my own (highly unscientific) observations, I counted double the amount of panel sessions and workshops devoted to this subject at UKREiiF 2024, compared with the previous year.
Why is engagement going up the agenda? Part of the answer sits with the wider challenges. On the one hand, public perceptions of what ‘placemakers’ need to deliver have evolved significantly in recent years.
At least one major player in the market has rebranded, dropping the word ‘Development’ from its name. For them, the word no longer has positive associations. Development is perceived as something imposed, a change forced upon communities, whether they like it or not. The language shift is part of broader societal changes that include increased awareness of environmental issues, social equity, community needs, and the long-term sustainability of urban spaces.
That’s not the only dynamic at play. It’s commonplace for professionals working in the built environment to talk about the UK planning process as an absolute quagmire. Planning officers, in turn, feel stigmatised and under-resourced. Sometimes off-the-record, frustrated developers scoff at the idea of tinkering around the edges of planning reform. What’s actually required, they say, is a fundamental overhaul of the decision-making process. That reform should produce a system that actually places value on community engagement and consultation.
One issue is that it’s often narrowly defined as a public consultation exercise in advance of a planning application. That’s problematic for a few reasons. One: to paraphrase one of our contributors (Donna Barber from Eden Planning), it’s a challenge for developers to see value in investing in meaningful consultations, because the planning process attaches insufficient weight to their outcomes. And two: pre-planning consultations are often focused on telling, rather than listening, and usually come too late in the process for the insights they generate to be fully embraced.
That question of timing is so important. When done well, engagement starts early in the planning and design process and carries on throughout the life of the project.
If the ultimate objective of any development is to improve lives, then switching the focus of engagement activity from “what do we need to do” to “what value can we gain” will pay dividends. And that value takes many different forms.
For me, it’s a welcome sign of the times that a workshop that Influential has just curated, billed to be about creating safer and more inclusive places, was in fact dominated by discussions of the importance of community engagement. I was struck by the extent to which sector professionals feel this first step in the process is not handled as well as it should be. So what does good look like?
Inclusion and ownership
Any built environment project ultimately succeeds or fails on the strength of its relationship with people – users, tenants and neighbours. Involving and listening to those communities from the outset of design work will not only result in a better product but will also help people to build connections and feel a sense of ownership over a place. Influential’s team has had the privilege of being involved with LandsecU+I’s transformational Mayfield project in Manchester for the last five years and have seen firsthand how early engagement has helped to build lasting connections with the place, long before spades hit the ground.
Deeper insights
Undertaking socio-economic research and pouring over census data, is an important part of any design process. But numbers can only tell you so much. The pace of change in local communities – driven by factors like the cost-of-living crisis, immigration and the long-term impacts of the pandemic – mean (potentially dated) data is no substitute for getting out into communities and listening to what their members have say. On a recent market town regeneration scheme we’ve been involved with, it was surprising to see the sheer volume of different community groups and grass roots organisations that were active in a relatively small area. They were a goldmine of insight and perspectives on what they believe their town needed, and having the time to facilitate conversations with these groups and our client’s design team, well in advance of any formal consultation, has undoubtedly benefited the project.
Breaking out of the echo chamber
Making the effort to meet people where they are and have authentic conversations will grant you access to a fuller range of views and ideas. It’s often those most impacted or interested in a proposal who will make the effort to attend a consultation event or read through proposals online. Taking a proactive, long term approach engagement will provide the time to reach and engage groups that may be harder to access but who’s feedback is no less important.
Delivering Social Value from Day One
Social value is increasingly monitored and measured throughout the regeneration lifecycle. Effective, early community engagement helps clients to understand where and how social value needs to be created but it can also play a role in delivering it. One example is in engagement with school communities. At Mayfield, Influential and the project team have built long term relationships with a number of local schools – that’s been a useful method of reaching members of the community and gathering feedback and insights, but it’s also allowed us to add value back through interactive workshops and guest lessons which have focused on STEM skills and shining a light on career routes in the built environment.
Most clients will have a team of consultants and specialists with their own social value commitments. Coordinating their activity to create new touch points with communities and continue something back during the design phase is a no brainer. Chances are you’ll be knocking on an open door – I’ve never met an architect who didn’t relish the opportunity to engage with the future end users of their designs.
Chris Barry
PR Director at Influential
To find out more about our services, check out the rest of our website or email us at marketingteam@thisisinfluential.com for a chat.
