Creating places with purpose: why communications is vital to delivering new towns
“We’ll not just build homes, we’ll build communities.”
These were the words from Steve Reed MP, Secretary of State for Housing (pictured above), during his maiden speech at this year’s Labour conference, as the government launched its New Towns Taskforce report.
First, I think we owe thanks to the taskforce team chaired by Sir Michael Lyons for the report and its recommendations, which created a flurry of posts online at the weekend.
While significant challenges around land assembly, financial viability, and planning lie ahead, we have a generational opportunity to deliver vision-led places at scale and at pace.
Done well, creating new towns unlocks badly needed new, affordable homes, to tackle acute housing shortages across the country. It will also help to revitalise our economy, creating new jobs, apprenticeships and supporting local enterprise. It will embed climate resilience and nature-positive regeneration. Importantly, it will also promote social cohesion, through places that foster connection, inclusion, and pride.
One area that was music to our ears here at Distinctive was recommendation 13 in the report, as it highlighted the importance of proper community engagement.
“New towns should establish clear and effective ways to engage the local community in shaping the vision and proposals for each new town and empower residents to build social capital and help define the cultural identity of the town.”
Why engagement matters
Now, we know that engagement done wrong – or too late – with large-scale, complex programmes, leads to communities resisting.
Fears of displacement, overdevelopment, loss of their place’s identity, or that regeneration just benefits newcomers – and not them – regularly feature as concerns.
This is why the first two years of any programme of regeneration is vital to a place’s success. A clear approach to early engagement, purpose, and place-based communications is critical to ensuring that success.
At Distinctive, we promote bottom-up engagement, as opposed to top-down, so that communities come on the journey with you.
We also look to listen before designing, so that we can co-create places with purpose.
Ultimately, you can’t see the change needed as a bird above, or on a parameter plan. You must listen and learn from those with a lived experience of the area to understand the changes needed, and more importantly the elements to celebrate.
Couple that with empowering local leaders, and we, as an industry, can put our best foot forward to create schemes that shape better outcomes for communities, with equitable access for all.
Getting to the human truth of the challenge
Effective place-based communications is the glue that brings together successful regeneration schemes.
We’ve seen in our work in major development and city centre schemes, how it turns abstract plans into lived possibilities by anchoring messages in local identity, history, and aspiration.
When communities see themselves reflected in the narrative through familiar landmarks, shared memories, and trusted voices, they’re more likely to engage positively.
To achieve this, we need to go beyond writing the standard 300-word blurb for local media or standing in a windy church hall on a Thursday evening to tick the planning box, and embrace hyperlocal channels: community radio, school newsletters, WhatsApp groups, and murals and pop-ups.
It’s not just about broadcasting information, either. These are big changes and promoters must aim to cultivate dialogue to build trust and drive momentum. This isn’t fluff to us. In an increasingly febrile climate, it’s a strategic necessity for major projects.
Having read the new New Towns report, it feels more than another pledge to us. It sets out an opportunity to reshape how we live, connect, thrive and prosper.
Success depends on how deeply we listen, how boldly we collaborate, and how creatively we communicate with the people who will shape these places.
The first two years are foundational and there is no time to waste. If we get them right, the prize is more than thousands of new homes, and sustainable, connected communities.
It’s also an opportunity to build hope, rooted in the power of place and the voices of those who call it ‘home’.
We look forward to working with partners who are serious about taking the opportunity, together.
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