Additional Team Members - Daniel Fitzpatrick
Engaging communities in regeneration processes is vital for avoiding displacement of residents. The Localism Act 2011 provides communities with tools for deciding about future developments in their neighbourhood. At the same time, community organisations are taking diverse approaches—including actions or campaigns, engagement with the Localism Act and other schemes—to fight against social housing demolition and propose alternative plans that include the needs and demands from the community. Despite the available tools, some communities are struggling to have a say and their claims are being disregarded. This raises questions on how effective these tools are, whether they are useful to vulnerable communities, and how they can be improved to include them. To address these questions, this research explores which planning and design tools, along with informal actions on the margins of planning, community groups are using to develop community-led plans. The output is a toolkit for residents and planners for including communities in decision-making within regeneration processes. This research was funded by the British Academy & Leverhulme Small Grant.
