Grosvenor Britain & Ireland has launched a community charter called ‘Positive Space’ with the aim to bring communities and developers closer together, and to set a new standard for public engagement in the way that places are created and managed.

The Positive Space document can be downloaded here. As part of the project, Grosvenor commissioned a series of six essays about public engagement from activists, influencers and frontline workers which the London Society is reprinting:

• Finding Common Ground | Dave Hill
• Are You Listening Carefully? | Catherine Greig
• Revitalising the concept of 'stewardship' | Will Tanner
• Beyond Box-ticking | Jessica Cargill Thompson
• Powerful, confident communities | James Goodman and Georgie Burr
• Corporate indifference or social responsibility? | Sheila Taylor

The initiative follows a 2019 study on trust in development and planning that found that just 2% of the public trust developers and only 7% trust the local council to act in communities’ best interests.It also showed that people who have interacted with the planning system are more likely to think development has had a negative impact on their area. Holding developers and councils to account was identified as the best way to increase public trust.

The Positive Space charter is part of Grosvenor’s ongoing work to help rebuild public trust in the planning process and the management of neighbourhoods and to encourage better conversations between councils, communities, and property companies, and is based on four core principles of listening, transparency, engagement and accountability.

You can read more about Positive Space here.