"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has”
These words from Margaret Mead, celebrated anthropologist and my fellow alumna of Barnard College in New York City, ring loudly at a time when authority, institutions and policies are shifting within and across established boundaries, creating uncertain futures for individuals and local communities.
A few things have brought Margaret Mead’s reverence for community action to mind: I attended two events last week which demonstrated the power of community-led campaigns in connecting people and inspiring real change in policy and practice; and in the last few days the government has announced several proposals related to planning that will, once legislated, shift the furniture in decision making creating new challenges and opportunities for local communities.
One of the events I attended was hosted by Part W to celebrate International Women’s Day and to launch a new campaign called Built Barriers. Part W is an action group campaigning to highlight the contribution of women to the built environment and call out gender discrimination in what they describe as an industry that routinely excludes.
Built Barriers is a campaign to document places and instances where design decisions in our built environment create obstacles to accessibility and safety for women. In a powerfully visual, and at times comedic series of short presentations, campaign members described a place they frequent in which they feel unwelcome, uncomfortable and sometimes unsafe. This ranged from unlit pathways, poorly maintained pavements, steep and narrow staircases and many others that met with empathetic commiseration from the event’s attendees.
If you have an example of such a place, do share it and contribute to the campaign #BuiltBarriers on Instagram and LinkedIn. I enthusiastically contributed these examples:
By sourcing and sharing these everyday built barriers, Part W is connecting women as well as practitioners in the built environment, and providing a platform to develop constructive solutions to the problems they spotlight.
The next evening I attended an event hosted by the London Cycling Campaign, featuring a panel discussion led by Jeremy Vine and which included London cycling commissioner Will Norman and a representative from Lime.
LCC has been incredibly successful in influencing London’s and Londoners’ adoption of active travel, most visibly manifested in 400 km of cycleway network across the capital. The panel explored how they achieved this and what challenges lay ahead, and three things stood out to me– coalition building (there are many, many groups supporting and contributing to the campaign), localism (campaign activities are led locally) and incremental change (small initiatives led to widespread adoption).
I was impressed to hear about how the campaign is working with Lime bikes – a potential disruptor to the campaign and its mission– to both influence its policies and to make use of the vast amount of user data the company collects. The discussion demonstrated to me how this campaign of mostly volunteers have moved the dial in London’s transport discourse.
I expect these campaigns to continue to build support and generate impact -- and they’ve got their work cut out for them if the changes proposed by the government this week to the development of our homes, places and infrastructure are legislated. Three are of particular interest.
First up is the reduction in statutory consultees for planning applications, described as a lifting of the bureaucratic burden to speed up building in the government’s growth agenda.
With a reduction in statutory consultees comes a reduction in informed scrutiny over the impacts of planning applications on local places and people. In some cases, this reduction might go unnoticed, or even welcomed – but in others the void it presents could be harmful to local people and places – and this is where campaigns may play a significant contributory role by ensuring that both community voices are heard and by providing the contextual information needed to make good planning decisions.
Also, of the statutory consultees that remain, some notable ones are undergoing substantial reductions in their authority and resources–such as NHS Integrated Care Boards which, as announced today, will have their funding cut by 50%. At a time when the need for scrutiny and context on the health impact of proposed developments is growing, this is disappointing. But it’s also an opportunity for campaigns such as Build for Health to support local communities in advocating for developments that do no harm to individual and community health and actively promote preventative health measures.
The second announcement is about the government’s New Town programme. Matthew Pennycook, housing minister, announced that the development corporations the government is backing to create new towns will be given powers to overrule local planners. He said
“By giving development corporations stronger and clearer powers, we will ramp up the delivery of high-quality homes, beautiful public spaces and vital infrastructure, increasing housing supply and boosting economic growth”.
Like the change in statutory consultees, this opens up a void in scrutiny and communication of local need.
Community-led campaigns can fill this void and play a significant role in ensuring the new towns answer to and reflect local people’s concerns and aspirations. This doesn’t mean blocking, but organising to establish what communities want in a new town development, and contributing to the agenda ensuring local people have a voice that is informed and constructive.
Third is the government’s new neighbourhood planning guidelines – pre-approved interventions that local authorities and Neighbourhood Boards can use for the Plan for Neighbourhoods programme.
This actually offers some real opportunities to develop and deliver services that benefit local people. Pre-approved interventions are outlined across eight areas, and the two that stand out to me are
1. Health and wellbeing, where pre-approval is given to interventions that
· Support community-level health provision
· Integrate and co-locate health and wellbeing services
· Support preventative public health initiatives and campaigns
· Fund local sport and activity facilities, events teams and leagues
2. And Regeneration, high streets and heritage, where the following are pre-approved
· Public realm improvement
· Green spaces
· Community gardens
· Arts, cultural and creative activities, initiatives, projects and facilities
Campaigns like Plan W, LCC and Build for Health could make the difference in supporting local people to seize these pre-approved interventions and to define and deliver the projects they want.
Another more salient point on the growing importance of community-led campaigns –shifts in authority, resources and policies like what we’re experiencing here in the UK inevitably seed and reinforce distrust in institutions and politicians. Last year the British Social Attitudes survey showed public trust in government and politicians at a record low. Whether and how this recovers is a matter for another day, but in this context community-led campaigns take on a new importance, providing local people to connect around cause and purpose. In times of change, these campaigns can be a lifeline for local people to ensure their voices are heard in discussions about the future of their local areas.
Next time a campaigner asks for a minute of your time, hear them out and if you support the changes they seek, ask yourself if these have any prospect of being met through established channels. If the answer is no, it may be time to join a campaign.
Clare Delmar
Listen to Locals
13 March 2025
