Presentation to Barnwood Trust professional practice training day 29th June 2016.

1. New settlements or new communities?
Planning for social sustainability
A professional practice workshop for the
Barnwood Trust
29th June 2016

2. Social Life’s aim is to put people at the heart of
placemaking

4. We continue to build neighbourhoods that fail to thrive
as flourishing communities

5. Where are the people?Where are the people?

6. We do research and use
ethnography
We advise organisations
across sectors
We work in the UK and
internationally
We use data
What we do

7. Explore the lessons from high-profile failures of new communities and
the experience of ‘new town blues’
Identify what makes new places become thriving communities
Show how these elements can be planned, designed and built alongside
the physical infrastructure
Present a model for assessing social sustainability
Identify what policy makers, developers and housing managers can do to
create communities that flourish.
Today’s workshop will

8. Social Sustainability: an introduction

9. 200 years plus of large-scale planned new communities in the UK but still
relatively little known about what makes places thrive and how to support the
social life of places.

10. The first question: what is a community?
Source: Egan Review 2004

11. Physical boundaries to promote
geographical identity
Strong social relationships,
networks & bonds
Local myths & stories
Rituals and rhythms
Shared belief systems: garden
cities, new towns, eco-towns
Visible leadership.
An alternative view

12. “… where these facilities were already in place when people began to
arrive, the community came together and networks were formed
more easily” CLG New Towns Review
“ … most mixing across social groups takes place between children. It
is these contacts … that provide opportunities to meet and form
relationships.” CIH/JRF 2005
“ … planning for hard infrastructure alone would never build a
community … it would only be done by a matrix of formal and
informal opportunities or supported activities.” Cambridgeshire PCT (2007)
Reviewing the evidence

13. What happens when you don’t build communities?

15. What is social sustainability?
“A process for creating sustainable, successful places
that promote wellbeing, by understanding what people
need from the places they live and work.
Social sustainability combines design of the physical
realm with design of the social world – infrastructure to
support social and cultural life, social amenities, systems
for citizen engagement and space for people and places to
evolve.”
Source: Social Life (2012). Design for Social Sustainability: a framework for creating
thriving communities.

16. Social sustainability framework
Voice and Influence
Space to Grow
Social and Cultural Life
Amenities and
Social Infrastructure
Connection
to local and
regional
economy
Green
building,
environmental
innovation,
incentives
for pro-
environmental
behaviour

17. How to build the amenities and social
infrastructure that work?
How to create belonging and identity from
scratch?
How to boost neighbourliness and
belonging?
How will new residents relate to
neighbouring communities?
How to give a sense of control?
How to inspire people to take action to
shape their neighbourhoods?
What does this mean for new developments?

18. Why is this important?
What’s in it for me?
Discuss in groups

19. Using the concept of social sustainability

20. Working with Grainger plc on their new Wellesley
development near Aldershot
Wellesley

21. Shaping the future of a south London site through
deliberative workshops

22. Working with the City of Malmö: using social
investment to support placemaking

23. Mapping community assets & identifying gaps:
Cheltenham & Tewksbury
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A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
A6
A8
A9
Winchcombe
Bishops Cleeve
Alderton
Coombe Hill
Gotherington
Highnam
Maisemore
Minsterworth
Norton
Shurdington
Toddington
Twigworth
Twyning
Woodmancote
Joint Core Strategy Proposals Map
Key Diagram
1
Gloucester
Cheltenham
Tewkesbury
The Cotswolds Area of
Outstanding Natural Beauty
Strategic Allocations
& Urban Extensions
Key
Green Belt (revised)
Joint Core Strategy Area
Rural Service Centres
Service Villages
City and Town Areas
Safeguarded Area
Administrative Boundaries
Areas to be removed from
Green Belt
This map is reproduced from Ordnance Survey material with the permission of
Ordnance Survey on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
© Crown copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown copyright and
may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Licence no 100019169. 2014.
0 105 Kilometres
2
3
4
5
6
8
7
±
Development Exclusion Zone

24. Measuring social sustainability

25. We have developed a social sustainability framework
for The Berkeley Group

26. Social sustainability indicators
3 dimensions, with
13 indicators.
made up of 35
questions in total,
measuring
dimensions of
social
sustainability.

27. Empire Square Imperial Wharf
Knowle Village The Hamptons

28. Thinking about developments early
below average above average

29. We have completed a social sustainability toolkit for
Sutton Council

30. Piloted in Beddington, on the edge of London & Surrey
Bed
Voice&
i
n
uence
Amenities &
infrastructureSocial&
C
ulturalLifeAdaptability
&
Resilience

31. Monitoring the impact of the regeneration of the
Aylesbury Estate, Southwark

32. Applying social sustainability to a development in
practice
How would you use the framework?
Discuss in groups

33. What have you taken from the morning session
What would you like to know more about?
What would you like to discuss this afternoon?

34. How has social sustainability been built into new
developments?

35. Post-war new towns, importance of early community
development workers & early provision
Amenities & social infrastructure

36. Sociologist appointed as “go-between” for early
residents and developers Hafen City, Hamburg
Amenities & social infrastructure

37. Sociologist appointed as “go-between” for early
residents and developers Hafen City, Hamburg
Amenities & social infrastructure

38. Community Concierge
Royal Arsenal Woolwich
Voice & influence

39. Community Land Trust
The Village, Caterham (Linden Homes)
Voice & influence

40. Watermead Parish Council
Voice & influence

41. Physical space that is adaptable in the future
Moveable Feast, St Leonards on Sea
Space to grow

42. A temporary café that moved
The Deptford Project (Cathedral Group)
Social & Cultural Life

43. Social & Cultural Life
Relationships with neighbours
The Hamptons wetlands fishery

44. Links with neighbours
Southwater Neighbour Network
Social & Cultural Life

46. How do you react to these examples?
Are they replicable?
Do you know of any other examples that are
helpful?
Discussion

47. How can we design, plan & action social sustainability?

48. Planning policy
“At the heart of the National Planning Policy Framework is
a presumption in favour of sustainable
development, which should be seen as a golden thread
running through both plan-making and decision-taking.”

49. Local
government
strategies
Housing
associations
Parish
councils
Community
groups
Transport
planners
Health
providers
Community
activists
Schools
Parents
Residents
Cafés
Leisure
centres
Housing
developers
Architects
Landscape
architects
Researchers
Consultants
Planners
Councillors
DCLG Minister for
Housing
Police

50. What role do different stakeholders have at different points on
the timeline?
PLANNING
DESIGN
CONSTRUCTION
OCCUPATION
LONG-TERM STEWARDSHIP
5 years plus ….

51. How can different professional perspectives
contribute to social sustainability?
What is the role of funding, investment and
resources?
What is the role of ambition and creativity?
What is your role?

52. What have you learnt about creating
communities, not just homes?

53. www.social-life.co
twitter: @SL_Cities
nicola.bacon@social-life.co