The TCPA’s vision is for homes, places and communities in which everyone can thrive.
Our mission is to challenge, inspire and support people to create healthy, sustainable and resilient places that are fair for everyone.
To achieve our vision and mission, the TCPA will need to operate in a certain way. We will be guided by our values, which are that we are:
- inclusive;
- collaborative;
- practical;
- creative; and
- bold.
What success looks like
Our priorities draw on our heritage. The TCPA was founded by the originators of the Garden City movement, who sought to transform the way that places are created for the common good. This approach enabled the practical achievement of beautifully designed and sustainable places for everyone, secured by reinvesting the wealth generated by development for the benefit of the whole community. Achieving social justice was, and remains, the driving ambition of the Garden City movement. The Garden City Principles are the practical articulation of this philosophy of place.
Informed by the Garden City Principles, the TCPA’s strategic priorities are to:
- Work to secure a good home for everyone in inclusive, resilient and prosperous communities, which support people to live healthier lives.
- Empower people to have real influence over decisions about their environments and to secure social justice within and between communities.
- Support new and transform existing places to be adaptable to current and future challenges including the climate crisis.
The TCPA’s Strategy
In January 2021, we launched our five-year strategy.
Diversity and inclusion at the TCPA
The TCPA embeds social justice in all its activities and promotes diversity, inclusion and representation within the Association.
Making a difference: key achievements in 2023
- Working to seek legislative change that will secure homes and communities that will improve population and planetary health.
A substantial amount of work in 2023 focused on seeking to secure amendments to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill (now the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act):
- Working with the Better Planning Coalition and wider stakeholders, the TCPA was pleased to have helped secure an amendment which – if applied correctly – could help to ensure that all local planning decisions support efforts to tackle climate change.
- As part of our Healthy Homes campaign, the TCPA put a huge amount of effort into securing commitments in the Bill to make sure all new homes are healthy. An amendment, tabled by Lord Crisp, was debated and pushed to a vote at Report Stage in the House of Lords. It won by nine votes and so was added to the Bill. While the amendment was subsequently removed by the government in the House of Commons, winning the vote demonstrated how many parliamentarians recognise the need for legislation that supports the creation of high-quality homes.
- Campaigning for new healthy, resilient, and affordable communities to help tackle the housing crisis
With a General Election expected in 2024, the TCPA worked hard to influence the thinking of all Political Parties. The Association welcomed the commitment from the Labour Party to a new generation of New Towns, and the commitment from the Liberal Democrat Party to new Garden Cities.
- Working with local authorities to improve population health and tackle health inequalities
In South Tees, the TCPA supported the appointment of a planning for health specialist who is directly influencing the emerging Local Plan for Middlesbrough. The Plan will guide development in the town until 2041 and therefore influence the health and wellbeing of the current and future population. That’s currently around 144,000 people.
In Buckinghamshire, which has a population of over half a million people, a healthy planning framework was developed to support staff working in public health better understand the planning process and support collaboration with planning colleagues. This work was a catalyst in establishing an authority-wide Health Planning Network to enable more joined-up work on healthier place-making in Buckinghamshire, including influencing the area’s new Local Plan.
- Empowering people to influence the future of where they live, work and play
As well as seeking to work at the national and local levels, the Association has been undertaking more work to empower action at the community level.
In Peterlee, the TCPA worked with communities to support and facilitate workshops that drew on the Garden City principles to inform the development of an ambitious vision for the town’s renewal. Working with the town council, as well as representatives of local arts organisations and local students, a prospectus for the future of the New Town was published in December 2023. The prospectus aims to support the town council to have local conversations about Peterlee’s future and to help attract funding and investment.
The TCPA is also supporting the revitalisation of Planning Aid for London (PAL), London’s free planning advice line for the public. From May 2020 to May 2023, we estimate that around 7,500 people were reached through a planning phoneline, website, workshops and other events and will, therefore, have a better, basic understanding of the planning system.
- Inspiring people to take ambitious action to tackle the housing, health, climate and nature crises
Through our workshops, webinars, conferences and publications, the TCPA seeks to promote and share good practice and provide inspiration.
In 2023 we published a new myth-buster pamphlet and short animation to tackle perceptions and misunderstandings about the Garden City model.
As part of our Tomorrow 125 initiative, we hosted workshops to engage students in the opportunities for planning and the Garden City idea, and what it means for future place-shaping. Workshops were held with University College London, University of Sheffield and the University of Hertfordshire.
We published resources championing long term stewardship as a critical element of high-quality development that will be well-maintained over its life course. A briefing note on securing stewardship through development plans and a process guide for council on Making Stewardship Happen were added to the online toolkit and a short report on retrofitting stewardship arrangements was also published.
Our 20-minute neighbourhood webinar series continued to be one of our most popular resources. Three new webinars were released, covering a variety of topics including how neighbourhood plans can support health, and how to implement 20-minute neighbourhoods in rural areas.
