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When Sir Michael Lyons coined the phrase ‘place-shaping' as a key element of the future role of local government, he provided a much-needed focus on an aspect of life we tend to take for granted – the places we live in and associate with. Places really matter. They are the mainstays of our society. Places drive our economic performance and host our communities. Some have existed for hundreds of years, some have been created but, indisputably, they are what we build and live our lives around. However, places don't just look after themselves and they certainly have no divine right to be successful. Whether we like it or not, our towns and cities are competing for our lives, tourist pounds, children, business acumen and investments. So, while place-shaping is about local authorities taking control of their streets and empowering local people, it is also about helping their places survive and succeed. This requires intervention on the agenda of competitiveness and ensuring their places continue to be chosen by the people already there, and getting on the shortlist of those considering where to invest their time or money. But, what does this mean for those charged with leading the place-shaping agenda? Where do we start? Can one blend micro management of services with the macro issues of competitiveness? Whether at a regional, city or neighbourhood level, a new approach is required which puts the place at the heart of thinking, strategy and delivery. However, this is a real challenge and, despite most place-related strategies claiming to want to create successful places where we will all want to live, work and play, this is all too soon subsumed in the familiar silos of regeneration, transport, economic development, tourism, and so on. Developing cross-cutting themes to support a place-led agenda, and even enhance the overall place experience, becomes almost impossible, and the result is disparate plans and activity providing a narrow, tactical response to broader, place-related issues. To be serious about place-shaping, we need to take a step back and rediscover our towns and cities, because this is the key to unlocking their ‘distinctiveness', as urged by the Lyons report. The starting point for this is to understand... what a particular place is for? what are its ambitions? where is it going? All places will have visions and strategies for all eventualities, but how many of these are place-led? How many of the visions are a short, motivational statement of intent that the entire community can get behind, understand and even remember. If one can articulate what the place is for and what it is aiming to become, it is possible to achieve the sort of collaborative momentum and engagement which can really shape a place. Indeed, for many locations, place-shaping is about delivering major change programmes that are reinventing or repositioning places within a highly-competitive environment. Unfortunately, new facilities, better services and shiny new developments are not enough if we don't communicate that change is happening and what benefits it will deliver. This aspect of place-shaping is about changing, or often creating, perceptions of a place and ensuring its image reflects its changing reality. Some cities and towns are employing the methodology of place branding as a way of delivering this, since it takes the assets of a place and what makes it special to develop a framework which helps differentiate the place physically, in its experience and in how it projects itself. This approach fits well within the place-shaping agenda, as it leads on place not organisations, and is orientated totally around the people who will make the place succeed. The result is a vision for the place which raises aspirations and quality levels, a focus on what the place is for in a way that highlights its distinctiveness, a set of messages that reflect this to local and external audiences, ambassadors and champions for the location and, most critically, a collaboration of people and organisations working towards the place's agenda. The place becomes the hero, and in doing so, creates an identity, dynamism and ultimately, success, that is surely the sort of place-shaping Sir Michael and we would want. John Till is director of thinkingplace

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WHITEHALL

Creating a sense of place

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