Why PlaceSense
“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.”
“When we build, let us think that we build forever”
This first piece is a little more personal than those that will follow. I wanted to share why I’ve formed PlaceSense and why I think it matters to really focus on places now.
We are in a moment of real change across the UK. Power is gradually shifting from Whitehall to local areas through devolution. Our politics feels unsettled, the shape of our economy is evolving as we adapt to an ever-changing world, and our communities are ageing and diversifying in ways that challenge how we plan, invest and deliver. We cannot simply carry on doing what we used to, and we should not try.
The question is how we adapt, and how we work together to make sense of what comes next.
There has been no shortage of talk about investing in places, levelling up and regeneration. Yet many people still feel that little has changed. According to polling cited in the UK Government’s English Devolution White Paper (2024), 69 per cent of people in England believe public services have got worse, not better. Research by the Local Trust and OCSI shows that “left-behind” neighbourhoods, those with weak social infrastructure and fewer community spaces, consistently fare worse across almost every measure of wellbeing.
Successive governments have relied on setting broad direction and then hoping that the private sector, communities and investors will align. At best that is optimism; at worst, magical thinking. We need to actively bring people together to make things happen. Real progress will depend on bridging the gaps between policy and delivery, between public and private, and between national and local interests so that we do the best for every place.
What shaped this view
I have had the privilege of working in central government, local government, contracting and consultancy, across the broad spectrum of those who concern themselves with the built environment. I have seen the strengths and the silos. The ambition and the ambivalence. The capability and the caution. We can all do better, and we all need to, if we are to make a genuine difference to the real lives of our communities.
My belief that we need to think about places more actively also comes from the ones I have lived and worked in.
I spent my early years in Birkenhead and Crewe, both places shaped by the loss of major industries in the 1980s and still waiting for a long-promised future. My teenage years were in Pershore, a market town whose calm and charm cannot quite hide a declining centre and an ageing population. I moved to London for university and have worked there since, watching some of the diverse neighbourhoods I once knew become gentrified and less cohesive. Later, living in Hampshire, I saw the tension between the need to build and the wish to preserve the beauty of the South Downs. Now, in north Kent, I live in a place that mostly serves those commuting to London, somewhere that functions but does not yet feel like it has a heart of its own.
All these places deserve more. They remind me that policy, investment and planning only matter when they connect meaningfully to the people they serve.
A shared task
Across the UK there is real energy and expertise in councils, communities and companies, all trying to make change happen. What is missing is often not effort but connection: the people and partnerships that can translate strategy into delivery, ambition into action and evidence into trust.
That is the space I want PlaceSense to help fill, working with others who share the belief that places can, and should, thrive. This is not a task for one organisation alone, but this is how I want to play a part.
If we are to turn vision into delivery, we need to work across three key divides that hold places back.
Policy and delivery
Strategies and policies give direction, but it do not deliver by themselves. All too often, the people who write policy and the people who make it happen are separated by layers of process, funding rules, and institutional culture. The result is a “valley of death” where good ideas falter because no one is responsible for carrying them across the gap.
Bridging that space is about more than governance or reporting. It means having people who can translate intentions into actions, who understand both the pressures of the frontline and the priorities of the centre, and who are trusted by both.
Where those connections are made, delivery becomes less about compliance and more about shared purpose. That is when strategies start to create real change rather than just more paper.
Public and private
No single sector can make a place thrive. The public sector provides vision, purpose, and accountability; the private sector brings investment, innovation and pace. Yet their conversations often take place in parallel rather than together.
Real progress happens when both sides recognise what they need from one another and start to work to a shared story. That means aligning incentives, but it also means building trust and creating relationships where challenge is constructive and success is shared.
I have seen first-hand how powerful those partnerships can be when they are built on honesty and respect, rather than procurement and performance management. The language of return on investment and the language of social value do not have to compete. They can reinforce one another when guided by a clear understanding of what success looks like for a place and the people who live there.
Local and national
Local ambition relies on national frameworks, and national policy relies on local delivery. I have worked a lot of my career and this intersection and seen these layers work in isolation, or even at cross purposes.
The best results come when the national understands the local, and the local can shape the national. This feedback loop rarely happens by accident; it needs people who can see both horizons and make the connections between them.
As devolution gathers pace, and new tiers are introduced, we will need many more of those connectors. People who can link policy with practice and bring coherence to systems that are still evolving.
Why it matters
The next decade will be decisive for how we shape the future of our towns, cities and communities. The pressures of demographic change, economic transition and environmental challenge will not ease, and public resources will continue to be stretched.
The UK is full of people who care deeply about the places they live and work in, and who have the knowledge and creativity to make them thrive. We need to find a way to stop being less than the sum of our parts, and become greater than them again.
We’ll do this by joining up well: between national and local, public and private, policy and delivery. By using our collective power to turn ambition into action.
That is the work I want PlaceSense to contribute to, alongside others who share the same sense of purpose. The more we can listen, learn and link our efforts, the more we can make progress that lasts.
When connections are made, we do more than make better plans. We create stronger, fairer and more confident places. Places that not only function but genuinely feel like home.