Shared Voice calls for “representative planning” to reflect community thinking

Planning reform risks reflecting “who turns up, not what communities think”, according to communications and public affairs agency Shared Voice.

In its publication, Representative Planning: the missing piece in planning reform, Shared Voice is calling for community engagement that covers the wider community, including those who would benefit from development, “not only those most motivated to oppose it”.

According to the agency, traditional community consultation often captures those already engaged, particularly motivated or directly affected by new development while other groups – younger people, renters and working households, for example – are not heard.

Shared Voice’s good practice guide states that the government’s planning reform measures in England do not feature a “reliable public mandate for development” – a more representative understanding of actual community thinking. Therefore, planning decisions usually only reflect those participating in consultation, Shared Voice said.

Its guide puts forward a “practical framework” for community consultation which combines two complementary approaches:

• Good neighbour consultation - listening to communities of place: those most directly affected, so local impacts can be understood and proposals improved
• Representative engagement - listening to communities of interest: the wider public who need, use or benefit from the homes, …