Young people have vital role to play in the planning process
Young people have vital role to play in the planning process
When new homes are built, renewable energy systems installed or other new development constructed it is children and young people who must live with the results for the longest.
Yet witnesses to the House of Lords Built Environment Committee this week (April 21) explained that when it comes to community engagement, those least likely to be asked for their views, or to offer them, are the young.
Nicola Rochfort, Head of Community Engagement for Grosvenor, revealed that in research carried out by the group 89% of young people said they had never been asked their opinion about the future of their neighbourhoods – despite 82% of them saying they wanted to be involved.
“This is an audience that is ripe for engagement and really wanting to be asked those questions,” she told the Committee. “This is a real missed opportunity that with some clear action and people being supported around engaging young adults we can really move the dial.”
She said Grosvenor and partners had developed a free resource called Voice, Opportunity, Power to help planners, developers and youth workers meaningfully engage 11- to 18-year-olds in planning, regeneration and place-making.
And she said it was important to engage young people by going to the places they frequent. “That might be in the school or youth club - or trying to get them to engage in your consultation programme by having some sort of post on TikTok of all things,” she said.
“That isn’t normally the space where property companies feel comfortable, or have a presence, but they need to get out there into these youth spaces.”
Fiona MacDonald, Co-founder and Director at MATT+FIONA, an architectural education collective, also gave evidence to the committee, chaired by Lord Gascoigne, a recent guest on KOR’s Estate Matters podcast.
She said there were significant benefits in getting feedback from young people on new developments.
“We would argue you do get better designed places,” she said. “Young people are looking at the value of space and place – they’re not yet seeing space through the lens of property and through the lens of finance.”
And she argued that many of the changes developers want to bring about for communities often win support from young people who are more open to progressive ways of thinking about community and place.
“They are thinking about low-car neighbourhoods, thinking about things like higher density living – things that perhaps older audiences will automatically say no to because it’s a change to what they are used to - but it is actually where the industry wants to be going,” she said.
“We have examples of developers reaching out to us who recognise that young people are going to be supportive of a lot of the change that they’re trying to make, that makes the community and the world a better place. That can often be blocked by those demographics that most typically currently turn up at our consultation events.”
She said if developers wanted to achieve a better built environment it was cost-effective to involve young people. “They will be inheriting climate change, they will be inheriting issues around social justice, so they tend to be talking from a very different perspective – seeing the built environment in its truest terms as place and space and not as property.”
Teresa Strachan, a town planner and academic told the committee there was no statutory duty on planning authorities in England to specifically ensure young people were part of the community engagement process when new developments were proposed and that meant a patchy approach to consulting with the young.
“It would certainly help to have that national requirement,” she said. “There is excellent engagement going on despite there being a lack of that requirement at national level.”
She said research over 50 or 60 years had shown that English planning policy had found it very difficult to come to terms with how best to engage young people on planning issues. “It has never made it into legislation,” she added.
The House of Lords Built Environment Committee started taking evidence on Young People and the Built Environment on April 14 and its inquiries run over three sessions.
Grace Gladding, KOR Communications’ Senior Consultant, Public Affairs, said the work by the Committee is welcome in addressing a significant gap in the consultation process.
“It is our experience that when landowners and developers reach out to neighbours and stakeholders as part of the community engagement process young people are often under-represented,” she said.
“This can lead to skewed feedback on new home developments, renewable energy schemes or other vital infrastructure. Ultimately, it can persuade developers and decision-makers that proposals lack local support and should be scaled back, dropped or refused permission.
“It is important that all sectors of society have their say to get the developments that are needed and work for all. At KOR we make every effort to reach younger audiences when supporting engagement programmes, using the online spaces young people visit and presenting proposals and opportunities for feedback in a way that is relevant and appealing to them.
“It is good to see the House of Lords Built Environment Committee under Lord Gascoigne’s chairmanship tackle this important issue.”
If you need support with community engagement for a planning proposal, get in touch using the link below.
To listen to Lord Gascoigne on KOR’s Estate Matters podcast, click here.
Photo credit - Unsplash