No place left behind

In August 2020 the Create Streets Foundation launched No Place Left Behind, the Commission into Prosperity and Community Placemaking. Chaired by Toby Lloyd, former Head of Policy at Shelter and Housing Adviser to the Prime Minister, it seeks to identify and develop policy and practice that enables regenerative development in ‘left behind places’. It aims to ensure that the government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda is deliverable and meaningful for those who live and work in these places.

Read Cycling Uphill, the inaugural research report for the No Place Left Behind Commission.

The final report of the Commission was launched on 20th September 2021 to an in person and online audience of Ministers, MPs, officials, partner organisations, local authorities, housing associations, developers and community activists – nearly 400 people joined for the event. The launch event was kindly co-hosted by the APPG for Left Behind Neighbourhoods.

The full programme can be found here

A summary of the report can be found here

Full speaker biographies can be found here. Listen to the launch event here.

Download the full report here.

The Commission has been made possible thanks to the generous support of Power to Change, Local Trust, Karbon Homes, Placeshapers, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, and Livin as well as support in kind from the Legatum Institute and the New Economics Foundation.

Create Streets Foundation are now looking to take forward the work of the Commission, to ensure the recommendations are adopted and work them up into oven ready policy and investment proposals, and to support excellent practice on the ground, building on the Foundation’s excellent Place Champions programme. If you’re interested in supporting that work please get in touch.

More from Ambition Lawrence Weston, one of the No Place Left Behind case studies here:

Terms of reference

The purpose of the Commission into Placemaking and Community Prosperity is to help improve the quality of lives lived in under-valued neighbourhoods, by promoting policies and practices that can improve place, health, happiness, wellbeing and a sense of community and agency.

The Commission’s focus is on approaches that can empower local communities, such as community led housing and asset ownership, community business/locally-led enterprising, co-operative action, better planning, regenerative development, design and stewardship.

The Commission has gathered evidence from the public, private and voluntary sectors to develop practical policy solutions and best practice recommendations for improving life in under-valued neighbourhoods.

The Commission is necessarily working in the unique policy environment created by the political upheavals of recent years and months and the Coronavirus pandemic. In this context, it seeks to contribute positively to policy debates on both the response to the current crisis and the longer term challenge of rebalancing the economy and national political life.

Aims

To gather evidence. The Commission will gather evidence to understand the scale and nature of the challenges facing under-valued neighbourhoods, and identify opportunities to tackle these.

To develop workable ideas to support place, health, happiness, wellbeing and a sense of community in under-valued neighbourhoods. The Commission will challenge current practices, policies and behaviours to develop pragmatic solutions to the challenges identified.

To advocate for steps to improve place, health, happiness, wellbeing and a sense of community in under-valued neighbourhoods. The Commission will act as a champion and advocate for better placemaking, community-led housing and stewardship.

To inform central, regional and local government policy and spending decisions. The Commission will seek to steer public investment decisions towards effective, empowering interventions.

To influence government agencies, landowners, housing associations, local planning authorities, community-led housing groups, charitable donors and others involved in shaping local places. The Commission will tailor communication of its findings and proposed solutions to suit multiple audiences in order to build wide consensus on positive strategies for regenerative development.

Toby Lloyd was Shelter’s Head of Policy from 2011 to 2018 and was the Prime Minister’s Special Adviser on housing and local government.

Toby Lloyd

Commission Chair

Mary Parsons is Chair of the Town & Country Planning Association and Regeneration and Partnerships Director at Lovell Partnerships.

Mary Parsons

Miatta Fahnbulleh is Chief Executive of the New Economics Foundation. She has a wealth of experience in developing and delivering policy to empower communities.

Miatta Fahnbulleh

Vidhya Alakeson is the founding Chief Executive of Power to Change, an independent trust established in 2015 to support the growth of community businesses across England.

Vidhya Alakeson

Andre Reid is the founder of Kiondo, a design research studio aiding developers, local authorities & social organisations to design with communities.

Andre Reid

Nicky Chance Thompson is CEO of the Piece Hall in Halifax.

Nicky Chance Thompson

Andy Reeve is Director of Regenerative Economics at Civic Square, a research lab focusing on building and investing in civic infrastructure.

Andy Reeve

Kathryn Eames has 15 years’ experience working in local government in regeneration and development, with particular expertise in community engagement.

Kathryn Eames

Paul Fiddaman is Chief Executive of Karbon Homes.

Paul Fiddaman

Jennifer McKevitt is Chief Executive of Back on the Map, a community business with £4.7M of residential, commercial and land assets in Hendon, Sunderland.

Jennifer McKevitt

Dave Boyle is a consultant specialising in helping community groups raise patient equity capital and has worked with over 50 groups, helping them raise £13M.

Dave Boyle

Caroline Gore-Booth is Project Manager at Giroscope, a self-help housing project based in Hull.

Caroline Gore-Booth

Melissa Meanis Director of We Can Make at Knowle West Media Centre in Bristol, focused on developing new kinds of citizen-led housing.

Melissa Mean

Matt Leach is the CEO of place-based funder Local Trust.

Matt Leach

Gareth Swarbrick is Chief Executive of Rochdale Boroughwide Housing. He led the transformation of RBH from local authority owned ALMO into the UK’s first tenant and employee owned mutual social landlord.

Gareth Swarbrick

Rachael Orr is the Director of PlaceShapers, the network for more than 100 community-based social landlords.

Rachael Orr

Stephen Brien is Director of Policy at the Legatum Institute, a thinktank researching the pathways to lifting all people out of poverty.

Stephen Brien

Nicholas Boys Smith is founding Director of Create Streets, a think tank and consultancy leading or supporting many urban design and community co-design projects.

Nicholas Boys Smith

Catherine is the former founder and CEO of the National CLT Network and has over 17 years experience in advocacy campaigning and housing and regeneration policy and practice.

Catherine Harrington

Rose Grayston has 10 years of experience in providing policy, research and strategic communications services to progressive campaigns and their leaders.

Rose Grayston

Project Manager