Public participation in planning in the UK: a review of the literature

Despite the fact that community participation is known to have major benefits in terms of resilience and
wellbeing (see for example Lewis et al, 2019) there is a general lack of ‘systematic empirical studies on how
public participation is practiced’ (Uittenbroek et al., 2019, p.16). Community Consultation for Quality of Life
(CCQOL) is an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project that seeks to develop a Code of Conduct
for inclusive participatory planning. The first stage of the project is this systematic review of the literature
on public participation, focusing on the UK since 2010. The review was guided by questions around how
community consultation could: (1) be made more impactful and effective across the diverse policy contexts of
the UK; (2) be made more representative and inclusive, including through e-participation; and (3) form a longterm project that fosters ongoing civic debate. While each of the devolved nations has a different approach
to planning and participation, summarised in Section 1, the main focus of this account is on England.