Next London Mayor should champion community involvement, says think tank

By
Ben Brown
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574

The next Mayor of London should champion community involvement in the way our city is built and managed.

This is according to a manifesto published by the capital’s dedicated think tank, Centre for London, ahead of the mayoral election on 6 May 2021.

The top-polling mayoral candidates all agree that London needs to keep developing and building new homes, so the manifesto argues, that this process must involve more – and more effective – engagement with Londoners.

Involving local people in decision making about new developments delivers more sustainable and better quality homes and places that respond to local needs and are valued by Londoners.

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To champion community involvement in local planning, development and regeneration, the manifesto calls on the mayoral candidates to commit to: 

  1. Publishing a draft Mayoral Statement of Community Involvement and establishing Mayoral Community Advocates who can support public involvement at every stage of the process;
  2. Setting up a scorecard to help local councillors assess the quality of community engagement in planning applications and support them to make better decisions;
  3. Developing and launching an accreditation scheme for planners and developers to recognise and reward good public engagement;
  4. Funding a training programme for local authority officers, councillors and community champions to help them work with residents to develop and enhance local plans;
  5. Using place based audits to recognise and value the knowledge and expertise of local people in the planning process.

Claire Harding, Research Director at Centre for London said: “Every Londoner should be able to have a genuine say in what happens in their local area. But this doesn’t mean development needs to be slower or stunted.

“Our manifesto shows that engaging Londoners early on in the planning process, making use of local knowledge, and valuing our city’s diversity would help the next Mayor build back better, greener and stronger.”

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