Londoners need to be more involved in shaping the way our city is built and managed.
Launching today with Centre for London, we have set out the following top five recommendations for what the next Mayor of London can do to strengthen public engagement in planning:
Demonstrate leadership and champion democracy – Publishing a draft Mayoral Statement of Community Involvement and establishing Mayoral Community Advocates who can support public involvement at every stage of the process.
Fund and build skills – Funding a training programme for local authority officers, councillors and community champions to help them work with residents to develop and enhance local plans.
Establish a knowledge base – Using place based audits to recognise and value the knowledge and expertise of local people in the planning process.
Create incentives – Developing and launching an accreditation scheme for planners and developers to recognise and reward good public engagement.
Provide scrutiny – Setting up a scorecard to help local councillors assess the quality of community engagement in planning applications and support them to make better decisions.
We have a golden opportunity of much needed change in the next few months - with the mayoral election, a new London Plan and a great need in response to the social, economic and environmental ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Please join us in our campaign to implement the changes and make a difference to the lives of Londoners, and leave your comments below. You can find the manifesto in full here