Resources
This page brings together key outputs, papers, links, and related work connected to the Just Neighbourhoods? research project. Other interesting resources are hosted here.
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- Final Report
- Working Papers:
- Other project outputs
Final report
The report presents the findings and recommendations of the Just Neighbourhoods? research project, funded by the Nuffield Foundation. The project examined how neighbourhood scale planning operates in socio-economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods across the UK, and the extent to which this activity contributes to advancing justice in place-based decision-making.
The report sets out the rationale for the research, the methods employed, key findings, and implications for policy and practice, including recommendations. This is the principal synthesis of the research.
The main report can be found here and the executive summary can be found here.
To supplement the final report, a series of supporting working papers and additional materials are available below:
Working Papers
Working Paper 6: Community-led planning, engagement and the Pride in Place Programme: a review
The paper sets out to highlight where and how plans and community engagement at the neighbourhood level correspond with the recently announced Pride in Place programme (PiPP) areas (phases 1 and 2a,b). This work sits parallel to the JN project and is intended to highlight how PiPP, as the latest in a long line of government funded regeneration initiatives, corresponds to pre-existing ‘community-led’ planning activity. This is pertinent given wider pressure to engage communities more effectively in local priority setting and is relevant to the JN work, given that the Pride in Place programme has positioned meaningful community engagement with residents at the neighbourhood scale has been set-out as a feature, along with the ‘co-production’ of PiPP regeneration plans.
Working Paper 5: Symposium summary
This short paper reports on the reflections of a one-day symposium held at the University of Reading in early February 2026. This was convened as part of the Just Neighbourhoods? (JN) research project. The event featured presentations, a panel discussion and break out discussions. The research team wish to express their thanks to the participants who attended and contributed on the day. In the spirit of the open access approach of the research team, this paper sets out a summary of discussions held during the symposium, and concerning two areas or sets of questions:
- Q1. How can and should planning and related strategies reflect underlying issues facing / communities
at scale? What prevents this? - Q2. Context of ‘Pride in Place’ direction – how will this / could this /or should hyper-local
‘planning’ be encouraged? Why / Why not?
Working Paper 4: Research case overviews
This report sets out the case studies from across the UK, which form the core of the project’s empirical work. The paper includes the emerging profiles of the areas under study, their context, and early observations.
Working Paper 3: Community Plan Content Review
A structured review of over 100 community-led plans from England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It analyses local authority status, community-led planning activity, and thematic content within plans from under-represented areas. Includes summary tables and annexes.
Working Paper 2: Literature Review
A synthesis of post-2010 literature on community-led planning. This review grounds the project’s theoretical framing and draws together international and UK research on CLP, participation, justice, and community power.
Working Paper 1: Theoretical Framework
Outlines the theoretical foundations guiding the project, including justice, participation, power, ethics, and scale. This paper supports the development of the methodological approach and later analysis. As such, this paper focuses on the following questions:
- How has planning theory approached justice?
- What is the relationship between participation and justice?
- How do power and ethics shape (in)justice?
- How can “just” planning be achieved at the neighbourhood scale?
Project Outputs
Just Neighbourhoods Symposium Presentation (05/02/2026)
The one-day symposium brought together practitioners, policymakers, academics, and community organisations to explore what community planning can tell us about (in)justice, participation, and place. The event shared the findings and tentative conclusions of the research, and invited reflection and discussion on what these insights mean for planning practice, policy application, and future research. There was a blend of presentations, panel discussions, and breakout sessions.
Special Insight Session for Planning Aid and related organisations (21/01/2026)
The Just Neighbourhoods? team held an insight session sharing early findings from the research; How is community-led activity unfolding in places that face deep deprivation and inequality and what does justice look like in that work? This event was particularly for staff and volunteers working in planning and community development in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, including Planning Aid England, Planning Aid Scotland, Planning Aid Wales, and Community Places. Indeed anyone who is committed to participation, fairness, and inclusion in planning processes. Alongside hearing about the project’s emerging insights, there was space for reflection, exchange and contribution to advice for communities.
This paper draws upon a novel analytical framework to review a sample of community-led plans produced across the four nations of the United Kingdom. It explores how communities interpret issues of (in)justice and how they seek to address them. Focussing on plans produced by communities categorised as more deprived, the analysis shows that abstracted notions of equality, diversity and inclusion are almost entirely absent, with communities more likely to focus on tangible issues of local importance such as access to affordable housing, health and service provision. The paper concludes by exploring the implications of these findings for understandings of justice.