Place-shaping

What is place-shaping transformation?

Place-shaping is all about creating or shaping places with intent. It usually means changing different aspects of a place to improve quality of life for residents, enable growth and to support vibrant and sustainable communities. It involves a wide range of activities that include, but go beyond physical buildings and the planning, design and management of spaces and infrastructure to consider social and economic factors alongside. Place shaping may be about creating entirely new places (for example large scale building schemes), or about regenerating areas that have been in decline.

What does good place-shaping look like?

• It is strategic, holistic, and supported by clear objectives. Combining physical, economic, social and cultural considerations in tandem.
• It engages the community and stakeholders across the place – involving and collaborating with local residents, businesses and other stakeholders, including public service providers to ensure their needs are considered and opportunities to create supporting services that are ‘more than the sum of their parts’ are maximised.
• Governance and strategy focuses on the long-term needs of the place – and is broader than the individual needs of bodies within it, with the long term vision guiding the short and medium term actions that enable it.
• It is evidence led – including considering current and future needs such as demographic change, housing demand, skill requirements, and so on.
• It embeds the concept of ‘curation’. Considering factors such as urban design to planning aesthetically pleasing, thoughtfully designed, liveable spaces, as well as planning and ensuring capacity for the curation and enablement of the events and activities that happen within them.
• It encourages sustainable communities, planning for mixed use developments and mixed tenure housing schemes – combining residential and commercial, recreational and social uses to create places people want to live, work and visit.
• It respects the culture and heritage of places, seeking to protect and celebrate the cultural and historical assets of the area where they add value to the strategy and needs of the place, integrating heritage sites and cultural provision into regeneration plans.
• It aligns the development of supporting infrastructure including transport networks, public services and digital connectivity.
• It actively embeds accessibility and inclusion as part of design, creating spaces that can be used, and enjoyed, by everyone.
• It considers economic development beyond the physical infrastructure, for example how local businesses are supported, how viability and sustainable growth is enabled and how skills are developed.
• It is sustainable, including implementing environmentally friendly practices in the design and build of new buildings and infrastructure and planning for resilience against climate change impacts.

Typical roles and responsibilities

Roles and responsibilities in the place-shaping space are broad and involve collaboration across multiple agencies. Some councils will have director roles with specific responsibility for shaping the place and for economic and community development. Typically, engagement is needed from planning teams, economic and community development teams, architects, engineers, environmental consultants, transport planners, partners in housing, health, education, private sector developers, third sector community and cultural organisations, communications and marketing, events teams, and more. There may be roles focused on the project delivery such as project or programme managers, business analysts, service designers, data analysts, and so on.

Questions to ask for all place-shaping transformation

As a councillor, you might wear one or more hats at a time, including representing people in your ward, in a leadership role (for example as part of a Cabinet), or on a committee. The questions below are designed as prompts to help those who play a role in scrutinising or making decisions about change:

• What is the council’s role in place-shaping? This will depend on the type of council, the level of resources available and the overall council strategy.
• Is there a clear vision in place and does it combine physical, economic, social and cultural considerations in tandem? Does the vision address what differentiates this place from other places?
• What are the council’s core objectives and measures for success? How will we know we have achieved them, and what are the key indicators along the way?
• What are the main risks and what actions are being taken to mitigate them?
• How will the community and stakeholders across the place be engaged, and what is the council doing to ensure a joined-up approach to maximise value and impact collectively?
• How is the council putting appropriate governance of the transformation in place. Will this ensure a focus on the long-term needs of the place?
• What is the evidence base that supports the change, including demographic change, housing demand and future skill needs.
• What is going to differentiate our place from all of the other places? What makes the place special, and how will the place be ‘shaped’ to ensure it remains so?
• How are we creating a sense of community to create places people want to live, work and visit?
• To what extent will the council incorporate existing culture and heritage assets into the plans for change, ensuring that it can be maintained in a sustainable and affordable way?
• How will the council ensure that supporting infrastructure including transport networks, public services and digital connectivity support and enable the planned growth?
• What about people with disabilities, or specific needs, how will the council design approach ensure we create spaces that can be used, and enjoyed, by everyone.
• Have we assessed how this change might affect our staff and communities from an equalities, diversity and inclusion perspective? What are we doing to ensure there are no unintended consequences?
• What wider economic and community development provision is being put into place – and how will the council measure the impact of this?
• How will the council take advantage of the changes to enable environmentally friendly approaches and sustainability?
• How will the council mitigate the risk of additional development and considerations such as flooding and other climate change impacts?

Additional resources

• Culture-led regeneration: achieving inclusive and sustainable growth
• Local service delivery and place-shaping: A framework to support parish and town councils
• Planning Advisory Service (PAS)