This action plan from Communities and Local Government sets out objectives which include strengthening leadership on quality of place, encouraging local civic leaders and local government to prioritise quality of place. It also puts the public and community at the centre of placeshaping.

The Government has committed to support councils, regional bodies, developers and other partners to strengthen local leadership on quality of place and raise the skills and capacity. It will also assist local leaders to understand and prioritise quality of place through a package of training programmes and through the HCA’s ‘Single Conversation’. Councils will be helped to set clear quality of place ambitions in local development frameworks through a comprehensive training programme.

The task of measuring and assessing the quality of place will be made easier for councils by taking a fresh look at how quality of place can best be reflected in the National Indicator set.

There will also be support for councils to deliver quality of place by using the ‘Total Place’ initiative to test ways in which efficiencies can be made to meet their full range of objectives, including delivering quality of place.

The Action Plan is available from CLG. http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/worldclassplaces-actionplan.pdf