Looking through all the notes I’ve made during 2025 at events attended or conversations with professionals in the development and construction sectors, I’ve put together my thoughts on ‘How to build a thriving neighbourhood’.
Pride
People need to feel proud about where they live. It could be in terms of history, culture, music venues, theatres, sport, green spaces – something everyone can relate to and feel ownership of.
Safety
People need to feel safe walking or out on their own, no matter what the time of day.
Community
A sense of coming together, bringing people back into town centres when they want to go out. Community is a journey and it’s about bringing the community on that journey with you, of revitalising and regenerating the neighbourhood without losing its spirit. People need a reason to come back into town rather than going elsewhere or staying in.
Choice
A choice of homes and a choice of tenure, whether it’s starter flats, family homes and larger properties, or downsizing options, so people can stay in the same neighbourhood through different life stages and different financial constraints.
Connectivity
Choice also in terms of connectivity: walking, cycling, public transport, and cars. Having a variety of options makes a place ‘thrive’ rather than just ‘function’.
Sustainability
Having a variety of stakeholders in the place, residents, businesses, private sector and development community, councils and visitors, and active travel schemes. It means closing the gap between resources and ambition through long-term partnerships, a shared vision and brave forward-thinking decisions.
Stability
Long term political stability, short consistent planning processes and real understanding through experience of issues faced and how best to overcome them.
One or Two Wow factors
Not just placemaking, but something authentic and different. Something a place is known for and something you can fall in love with. Pubs, music, food, heritage, or social spaces – the culture of a place.
A Holistic Approach
Ground floor activation, mixed use neighbourhoods, day time AND night time uses. But it’s underpinned by a holistic approach to an area and its surroundings.
Balancing Developer Demands with the Bigger Picture
Developers may want to maximise returns with dense overdevelopment, but they also need to see the bigger picture and accept lower-value uses like green spaces and community functionality because they create better, more sustainable communities and places overall.
Future Forums
We know about the thriving places of today but need to plan for tomorrow in terms of technology, AI, climate change and lifestyle shifts. It’s important to a) talk to younger generations and b) have forums to think collectively about how to approach the big issues of the future. And how to retain what is important to people, young and old, and communities.
Community Engagement
Consultation is so important. Thankfully most projects are consulting earlier now and listening to what a community is passionate about. First you need to identify the key community groups to engage with and what areas are going to have the most impact. Working in an area where schemes have stalled or not completed, the community can be very mistrusting, they think this time won’t be any different. You need a really clear narrative of what is being delivered and why it is different. You need to make sure people are updated constantly. Development takes a long time, little news stories keep people updated and keep up the excitement, not letting negativity set in. Let the news stories include local residents comments or lived experience of the area. Cohesive communications always help a common goal in redevelopment of an area.
Communicating the Vision
Sometimes when asked, the changes people want are low level, new paint or repairing small areas. People need to see the changes being made and think of bigger transformative changes that can really happen.
Social Value
Set up a small community fund to help community groups who really want to help support their neighbourhoods. This links ‘change’ to positive things happening and gives you stories to tell.
All in Order
Previously, big developments would be built by blocks first, finally the landscaping would be constructed with a couple of trees. Now the landscaping and placemaking becomes the catalyst for the rest of the development. This creates an environment that people want to be in from the start, something that the whole community can enjoy and take pride in. It also shows the local community that something is happening and the first output is open to everyone. Nature-led approaches can solve multiple challenges at once.
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Photo: Place North West’s Cheshire Breakfast in October 2025.