Campaigns and public engagement
About our campaigns and public engagement
Since its inception, Place Alliance has increasingly taken on a more active campaigning role to better fulfil our core aim of bringing people, evidence and new thinking together as a means to support the case for place quality, and to actively campaign in favour of investing in a high quality built environment.
After a long period of disengagement with design, the Government is getting interested again, and communities up and down the country through neighbourhood planning and other means are increasingly concerned to deliver new housing of a much better quality than we have been seeing in the recent past. It is time to re-focus and re-double our efforts. If you would like to contribute we would love to hear from you. Just get in touch.Â
Our campaigns
CAMPAIGN: A design unit for England
In 2020, the Place Alliance together with the Academy of Urbanism, Civic Voice, CPRE, Design Council, Trees & Design Action Group and Urban Design Group, made a joint submission to the government arguing that the delivery of good quality urban design across England was systematically failing for decades and that now it is the time to set up a dedicated Design Quality Unit for England in order to confront the challenges head on and focus attention on the delivery of better design.
CAMPAIGN: NPPF
In 2018, the Place Alliance made a joint submission to Government alongside the Academy of Urbanism, Civic Voice, Institute of Historic Building Conservation and the Urban Design Group, arguing that the consultation draft of NPPF released earlier in the year was too timid and that Government needed to show greater determination and leadership on this issue.
CAMPAIGN: Permission in Principle
In 2016, The Housing and Planning Bill 2016 introduced the move to permitting development via a ‘Permission in Principle’. Place Alliance has sought to pragmatically investigate how the new provisions might be used positively to achieve both the Government’s aim of greater certainty in the planning process, whilst still enabling the proper consideration of design and other qualitative concerns through the planning system.
CAMPAIGN: Building Better Places
In 2015, The National Policy for the Built Environment Committee was appointed to consider the development and implementation of national policy for the built environment and to make recommendations. The Place Alliance asked its supporters to suggest exemplars of initiatives where local communities have been successfully brought into the planning, development and design of their areas, and where local powers have been used to positively shape places.
Our public engagement projects
Coming Soon
Work with Us
The Place Alliance has its origins in a cross-sector collaborative alliance for place quality. Our supporters are engaged in the full range of processes involved in shaping places. These encompass processes that are:Â
- Both strategic and local in nature; public and privateÂ
- Top-down and bottom-up and both professionally and community drivenÂ
- Directly and
indirectly shaping places (for instancethrough both projects and policies)Â - Concerned with the environmental, social and economic wellbeing of places and peopleÂ
- Involving a wide and varied range of professionals and communities.Â
By working constructively and collaboratively as allies, we aim over the long-term to establish a culture whereby place quality, in a holistic sense, becomes a continuous and ever-present agenda in all new development, regeneration and urban management processes. Individuals and organisations are always welcome to work with us and we partner with others in most of what we do. Working together we are far stronger than working either in isolation or within our disciplinary or interest group silos.Â
Contact
Prof Matthew Carmona – Chair
Valentina Giordano – Chief Executive
To discuss how we might work together please email placealliance@ucl.ac.uk Â
Become a supporter
Place Alliance is an independent not-for-profit initiative of UCL. We operate on a tight budget and rely on the generosity of our supporters. For those who wish to make a donation to help grow the Place Alliance network visit our UCL online giving page to make a gift. If you would like more information on how we will spend your donation contact placealliance@ucl.ac.uk
Your support is truly appreciated.