The Just Neighbourhoods? research team has submitted a response to the Government’s consultation on the draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
Drawing on our years of research on neighbourhood planning and community engagement in planning, our submission argues that planning policy must do more to recognise social justice, place-based inequality and community knowledge.
Too often planning decisions are made about neighbourhoods rather than with them. Yet our research shows that communities already hold deep knowledge about their places and clear ideas about how quality of life could be improved.
If planning reform is to succeed, it must strengthen the social purpose of planning and ensure that communities, especially in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, are genuinely able to shape decisions affecting their future.