2022 winners

This research draws on key informant interviews and case studies in Bradford, Harrow, Lambeth & Lewisham to explore the role that the English planning system can play in reducing racial inequalities in housing. The research concludes that the planning system has historically tended to perpetuate such inequality, but crucially, that it also has untapped potential to address it. To reach this potential, planners need to be equipped with the knowledge and confidence to move away from a focus on formal equality of treatment and be willing to actively promote equality agendas where necessary to ensure equal outcomes.

PAS, the LGA and David Lock Associates have developed a Toolkit designed to assist local planning authorities and their partners in helping to signpost and overcome key issues associated with planning for and delivering strategic scale development. The Toolkit has been compiled using evidence from a wide variety of sites, case studies and knowledge from the authors’ collective experience in delivering such sites.

Tracking Progress provides a ‘deep dive’ into five local authority case studies to examine what really happens to planning permissions at the local level once they are granted, and what can be expected to be seen in terms of delivery five years on.

Taking Stock explores how the pipeline of sites for housing development compares with what might be needed to meet the Government’s ambitions to deliver 300,000 net additional homes per year, taking into account how delivery varies across different parts of England. The report concludes that many parts of the country – particularly those with greatest problems of affordability – have a shortage of planning permissions to meet the Government’s estimates of housing need.

This study (supported by a small grant of the Property Research Trust) comparatively analysed the regulations put in place by the governments of 12 large European cities to control short-term rentals, which have rapidly grown due to digital platforms. It shows that the emerging local regulations take multiple forms and degrees of stringency, ranging from relative laissez-faire to strict control. All city governments face notable difficulties in enforcing those regulations, mainly due to the reluctance of corporate platforms to release precise data on individual STR. Access to market-generated data has become key for planning policy and enforcement in this field.

For decades local planning authorities in England have been reluctant to refuse poorly designed residential and other developments on design grounds. Based on an analysis of national appeals data, Appealing Design examines this reluctance, furnishing authorities with the evidence they need to confidently pursue their design ambitions in the future.

Digital Participatory Planning outlines developments in the field of digital planning and designs and trials a range of technologies, from the use of apps and digital gaming through to social media, to examine how accessible and effective these new methods are. It assesses whether digital technology offers an opportunity for the public to engage with urban change, to enhance public understanding and the quality of citizen participation, and to improve the proactive possibilities of urban planning more generally.

This research explores the extent to which planning practice considers and implements theories, on how the built environment can be shaped to be conducive to mental health. The research utilised the GAPS (Green, Active, Pro-Social and Safe Places) framework to assess planning policy (at national and local levels) and to discuss first hand with planning professionals to what extent the delivery of mentally healthy places is considered in planning practice today. This research hopes to add value to the emerging body of research exploring how the planning profession can shape mentally healthy built environments.

The research examined the current and potential contribution of the economic policies within local plans in four urban coastal local planning authority areas, with a focus on critically evaluating the implementation of adopted planning policy against a range of key indicators and national level objectives and delivery mechanisms. The findings radically challenge much of what is believed to be true about economic planning policy, planning for coastal towns and how “levelling up” may be achieved.