Trees, trams and tricycles: no place left behind?

The Commission into Community Prosperity and Placemaking seeks to identify and develop policy and practice that enables regenerative development in ‘left behind places’

The No Place Left Behind: the Commission into Community Prosperity and Placemaking has launched its new report at the House of Commons. Toby Lloyd, former Head of Policy at Shelter and Housing Adviser to the Prime Minister, chairs the Commission.

The Commission 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. The commission’s mantra is that no place should be left behind. 

It's new report, No Place Left Behind, isis the product of a year of evidence gathering and discussion with experts and grassroots community activists from around the country. We hope it can contribute towards a deeper understanding of what levelling up our left behind places should mean, and how to achieve it, so that no place is left behind," say the authors.

Key considerations are:

• Places matter. Many need to go on a road diet

• Left behind places need trees, trams and tricycles to create prosperous, child-friendly environments

• Town and neighbourhood centres matter

• Left behind towns need the tools to remake the high street

• Social infrastructure matters. Who owns it – and who decides – matters

• Left behind communities need the powers and resources to take control of their assets

• Homes and neighbourhoods matter

• Left behind neighbourhoods need street-by-street investment to bring homes up to standard

• Resources and the ecosystem of local institutions matter

• Levelling up the country needs government to trust communities with flexible, long-term funding

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.