irishboyinlondon

Mary Portas reviews the future of UK high streets! Some interesting reading. You can read the report here.

Below are her 28 recommendations.

1. Put in place a “Town Team”: a visionary, strategic and strong operational management team for high streets

2. Empower successful Business Improvement Districts to take on more responsibilities and powers and become “Super-BIDs”

3. Legislate to allow landlords to become high street investors by contributing to their Business Improvement District

4. Establish a new “National Market Day” where budding shopkeepers can try their hand at operating a low-cost retail business

5. Make it easier for people to become market traders by removing unnecessary regulations so that anyone can trade on the high street unless there is a valid reason why not

6. Government should consider whether business rates can better support small businesses and independent retailers

7. Local authorities should use their new discretionary powers to give business rate concessions to new local businesses

8. Make business rates work for business by reviewing the use of the RPI with a view to changing the calculation to CPI

9. Local areas should implement free controlled parking schemes that work for their town centres and we should have a new parking league table

10. Town Teams should focus on making high streets accessible, attractive and safe

11. Government should include high street deregulation as part of their ongoing work on freeing up red tape

12. Address the restrictive aspects of the ‘Use Class’ system to make it easier to change the uses of key properties on the high street

13. Put betting shops into a separate ‘Use Class’ of their own

14. Make explicit a presumption in favour of town centre development in the wording of the National Planning Policy Framework

15. Introduce Secretary of State “exceptional sign off ” for all new out-of-town developments and require all large new developments to have an “affordable shops” quota

16. Large retailers should support and mentor local businesses and independent retailers

17. Retailers should report on their support of local high streets in their annual report

18. Encourage a contract of care between landlords and their commercial tenants by promoting the leasing code and supporting the use of lease structures other than upward only rent reviews, especially for small businesses

19. Explore further disincentives to prevent landlords from leaving units vacant

20. Banks who own empty property on the high street should either administer these assets well or be required to sell them

21. Local authorities should make more proactive use of Compulsory Purchase Order powers to encourage the redevelopment of key high street retail space

22. Empower local authorities to step in when landlords are negligent with new “Empty Shop Management Orders”

23. Introduce a public register of high street landlords

24. Run a high profile campaign to get people involved in Neighbourhood Plans

25. Promote the inclusion of the High Street in Neighbourhood Plans

26. Developers should make a financial contribution to ensure that the local community has a strong voice in the planning system

27. Support imaginative community use of empty properties through Community Right to Buy, Meanwhile Use and a new “Community Right to Try”

28. Run a number of High Street Pilots to test proof of concept

12/13/11

Young Foundation: Community action toolkit

The Young Foundation have published an excellent community action toolkit to help local authorities and government engage with, empower and develop local communities

Use this toolkit to find out what people want from the Big Society: what makes people want to get involved in local action? What stops them from taking part. How to devolve power and money to communities. How communities can work effectively with local authorities and public agencies. And, what makes people feel like they belong in a place.

08/2/11

Interesting short video from a TED talk given by Dave Meslin on the barriers to real engagement and participation in public society. His first point, on participation in planning is so true…the current standard for “engaging” is so complex and dry…an approach like the one he suggests would surely mean real transparency, and make information easily accessible to all. Such simple changes, easily and cheaply implemented could make a massive difference to the way we engage with the world around us - real democracy.

urbandifference:

Dave Meslin’s talk about 7 barriers that keep us from taking part in our communities

05/27/11

Connected Communities: How social networks power and sustain the Big Society

Connected communities - Networked map

Traditional approaches to community regeneration which define communities in solely geographic terms have severe limitations. They often failed to deliver on key social capital improvements such as improving trust between residents or fostering a greater sense of belonging.

In this report we argue for a new approach to community regeneration, based on an understanding of the importance of social networks, such an approach has the potential to bring about significant improvements in efforts to combat isolation and to support the development of resilient and empowered communities.

Read the report here

10/15/10

Cameron names pilot regions for planning reforms

..Cameron said the four regions that would pilot the proposed “open source planning” changes would be Liverpool, Windsor and Maidenhead, Sutton, and Eden Valley in Cumbria.

They will also pilot other changes that local communities would be expected to take on under the “big society” agenda including; Developing transport services; Taking over the running of local assets including post offices, libraries and pubs; Generating their own energy; Delivering broadband to local communities

Timetable of planning reform published

The coalition Government has published a timetable for implementing its decentralising and localism agenda which indicates that the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) may survive until April 2012. That is when ministers anticipate the new Major Infrastructure Projects Unit will be established in the Planning Inspectorate.

That is also the target date for a new national planning policy based on the Conservative’s ‘Open Source Planning’ proposals. The administration is promising to “radically reform the planning system to give neighbourhoods much greater ability to determine the shape of the places in which their inhabitants live”.

This timetable also suggests that the dissolution of the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) and the Government Office for London will be achieved by then.

According to this scenario, set out in the Cabinet Office’s draft structural reform plan for the Department for Communities and Local Government, ministers are expecting to see Royal Assent for their Localism Bill by November 2011.

This legislation will include proposals for a new designation to protect green areas of particular importance to local authorities.

The document signals that from November this year local planning authorities will be able to work “in new ways on local plans” in advance of the passing of the Localism Bill.

The plan for CLG’s future work includes immediate consultation on the possible transfer of functions from RDAs. Work on the establishment of Local Enterprise Partnerships is scheduled to take 12 months from September 2010.

Also due very soon is the detail of the promised incentive scheme intended to encourage local authorities to build more new homes. This is being developed with the Treasury.

irishboyinlondon

Connected Communities: How social networks power and sustain the Big Society

Cameron names pilot regions for planning reforms

Timetable of planning reform published

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