Across the United Kingdom there is growing recognition that the way we plan and manage towns and cities is no longer fit for purpose. It is more than twenty years since the Urban Renaissance agenda and ten years since the Farrell Review, yet many new neighbourhoods still lack the social and physical infrastructure that people need for everyday life. Urban Flourishing has been created as a national review to ask what we want from the places we call home and how we can design them to support people and the planet.
Led by Urban Initiatives in collaboration with the LDN Collective, Demos, ECF, UCL and Commonplace, Urban Flourishing is built as a movement rather than a one off project. The partnership is developing practical guidance for flourishing places that is rooted in evidence, informed by the public and supported by new technology including artificial intelligence. The findings will be presented to the government and published as an open source resource for planners, councils, developers and others who shape towns and cities.
The starting point is simple. Daily life has changed faster than the places around us. There were no food delivery apps, next day retail logistics or widespread flexible working twenty years ago. Today home ownership is out of reach for many, summers are hotter and drier, and biodiversity loss is visible in everyday streets and parks. The Urban Flourishing team argue that we need to think differently, creating places that respond to new lifestyles, are resilient to climate impacts and value nature and access to green space as essentials, not extras.
Urban Flourishing is anchored in a major public engagement programme called The Great Places Conversation. Through a national digital platform, local workshops and targeted outreach, people are invited to share what helps them feel that a place is fair, green and healthy. The questions cover homes, jobs, transport, social infrastructure, health and wellbeing, culture, nature and local identity. Contributions from residents, businesses and practitioners will shape a set of adaptable models for town planning and regeneration that can be used in very different contexts across the country.
The LDN Collective plays a central role as collaborator and convenor. Building on experience from the Farrell Review and other national initiatives, LDN helps to frame the questions, connect expert practitioners with communities, and make sure that the emerging guidance is usable for real projects rather than sitting on a shelf. Our multidisciplinary network brings together planners, designers, economists, social researchers and communications specialists who understand both policy and delivery on the ground.
As our CEO Max Farrell has said, there is strong political and market pressure to build at pace, but what we build must stand the test of time for generations. The only way to achieve that is to listen carefully to what people want and need in different neighbourhoods and then design responses that reflect those differences. Urban Flourishing provides the structure to do exactly that, combining qualitative stories, quantitative data and expert insight into a clear set of recommendations for the next generation of place making.
For future clients, Urban Flourishing shows how the LDN Collective can help national and local partners design and run ambitious conversations about place. We can co-create the brief, assemble the right expert team, select and integrate digital engagement tools, analyse responses using both human and AI methods, and translate what we hear into practical guidance, pilots and investment ready propositions.
If you are a government department, combined authority, city council or major landowner and want to explore a similar approach for your area or portfolio, we would be very happy to talk.