Are we bringing the younger generation with us?

David Jones, managing director of property and planning consultancy and Thames Tap partner Evans Jones, asks if the industry is delivering developments the people who will be most affected by them really want.

It is widely agreed that one of the key challenges facing the Thames Valley’s future economic prosperity is how to retain its younger generations.

Some developments can take many years from inception to delivery – the generation that will often end up living with these developments will have probably never been asked or been involved at all in deciding what they should be like.

I have spent many years attending public consultation events and what I see looking back at me is very much an audience of a certain age, and not very diverse. It is often the settled community that participates. That’s simply not good enough and I think it’s time we looked to try and change that.

In the pandemic even parish council meetings went online and that brought in a different audience and involved people because they engaged through social media. Usually, we would see just 10 or 20 people at a planning meeting like that, but we have seen cases with between 120 and 130 viewing a parish council meeting – and points were challenged by informed members of the audience telling them what their community wanted – so it was much more representative.

In some cities we are seeing developments we have never seen before with elements of private living space and shared space in the same development. I am a great believer that if you bring people into the city and town centres they will spend.

But, has anyone asked the people who will be living and using those spaces what they would like to see and what they think? They are the ones who will make a decision on using these spaces and who will ultimately make them a success.

There is some direction from Government now as well to try to reach people who are going to be impacted by a development more fully, but I don’t think we can wait for Government to make changes. It will take too long. We need to seek to instigate those changes.

I think we have to be proactive ourselves. It is about reaching out. Perhaps that is in trying to reach those in schools, colleges and universities who might be studying relevant courses or who are looking to live and work in those areas and getting them involved.

It is only through asking younger people and listening to what they have to say that we will make our towns and cities more attractive to them as places to live and keep them here in our region.

It is through getting everyone involved in the conversation about what sort of county they want and also telling them about what we have already that will change attitudes and also make people feel invested here.

I am hopeful we have an opportunity for change. We have lots of stakeholders who need to take part for that to happen – from local authorities, parish councils to those in our industry. We all need to seek to engage people in new ways. We have to emphasise the positive and encourage people.

I am under no misconception, it will be difficult. People have been alienated for a long time, so long that changing those behaviours will be a challenge.

And if people engage, we need to make sure they are heard too – or we will lose them.

David Jones is managing director and head of planning at Evans Jones Ltd, property and planning consultancy, based in Cheltenham, with offices in London and Reading.

Visit www.evansjones.co.uk 0800 0014090.

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