As the race for London Mayor hots up, the main contenders sharpen their focus on the link between high-quality design and community consultation.
The two main contenders in London’s Mayoral race, Labour’s Sadiq Khan and the Conservative’s Zac Goldsmith, have recently unveiled their manifestos. Housing is at centre stage for both – with design and community consultation very much in the spotlight.
So what have the candidates said?
- Khan will put good design at the core of his London Plan. Greater scrutiny will also be placed on the way in which communities are consulted. Estate regeneration, for example, will only be given the green light where there is resident support, based on full, transparent and meaningful consultation.
- Goldsmith will help communities to co-design developments and appoint a Chief Architect to City Hall to drive forward high-quality design in the capital. Goldsmith says he will demand genuine consultation, with planning applications overturned if they are not accompanied with a robust Statement of Community Involvement.
Khan and Goldsmith are clear that design and community consultation are inextricably linked – and both are essential to bringing forward the high-quality developments needed to address the capital’s chronic housing shortage.
At Iceni, we believe there is much to applaud in this. It is often local communities who have the greatest understanding of the place in which they live and work. For this reason, community engagement is key to advancing masterplans – allowing communities to envision what is possible and providing a common sense of ownership for the project.
Iceni’s Design and Engagement teams have a strong track record of working with communities to advance masterplans.
We recently held a series of ‘planning for real’ workshops in East Tilbury, Thurrock – on the doorstep of the capital – to help bring forward a masterplan for a comprehensive investment and development programme.
Before any detailed plans were drawn up, Iceni invited the local community to participate in a series of design workshops. The Iceni team worked together with the community to ensure that local priorities, concerns and future aspirations were able to materially inform the emerging masterplan.
What are the advantages of this approach for developers? Early and meaningful consultation can help to:
- Deliver sustainable developments, with greater longevity built in to masterplans
- Avoid potential delays at the planning stage by responding to local priorities early on
- Maximise development potential through engagement, rather than an adversarial process
The future of localism – the Mayoral election and beyond
Although the Mayoral election result is up in the air, we can say for certain that localism is here to stay. Gone are the days of a public notice on a lamppost and a box-ticking consultation event in a dusty town hall. The onus is now very much on meaningful engagement with local communities – to ensure high-quality design and the opportunity for everyone to be a collective author of the proposals. The link between design and community consultation has never been more in focus.
For any questions please contact: