Log in
Loughborough University research into town centre consumer perceptions and behaviour has changed the awareness, attitudes and approaches of industry bodies, policymakers and retailers with regard to driving evidence-based strategies for town centre recovery. Nationally, it has informed industry bodies such as the British Retail Consortium and the Association of Town and City Management of the value of consumer perceptions for developing and evaluating town centre strategy. Locally, it formed a key component of the evidence-based advice that helped Loughborough Town Centre win a place in the government-commissioned Portas Pilot project to rejuvenate Britain's High Streets. High Street giants such as Boots have also acknowledged its importance.
Research conducted by Professor Wrigley of the University of Southampton has had a major impact on retail sector practices and government retail policy. Retail is a key sector of the economy. Gross value added (GVA) by the sector has risen by over 50% in real terms over the past 15 years. Wrigley's research established the key role of food retail in disadvantaged communities as a tool for both urban regeneration and a response to the `obesity epidemic'. Its impact has reset the parameters of policy debate on retail competition and contributed to both the evidence base and policy formulation on the future of the high street in the face of case of economic crisis and changing retail practices. These impacts have had national and global reach on UK and US government policies and have been significant in the launch of a large-scale experiment to eradicate `food deserts' (areas lacking healthy foods) in Philadelphia. The impacts have also been instrumental in convincing the retail industry of the value of academic research.
Research carried out by Manchester Metropolitan University into the management of town and city centres has directly led to key changes in policy and practice - in particular, the acceptance and adoption of new partnership approaches to town and city change now supported by the Departments of Business Innovation and Skills, and Communities and Local Government. The research has also impacted on professional practice internationally, through the development of a comprehensive set of principles, standards and approaches disseminated through the Institute of Place Management and aimed at empowering communities to better manage town centres for the benefit of the local community.
Planning obligations are used by local government to capture some of the financial windfall that accrues to land owners and developers when planning permissions are granted. University of Sheffield research into the incidence of planning obligations, their financial value, and variations in related local policy and practice has made a significant contribution to national policy development. This includes the shaping of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and the improvement of obligations policy implementation throughout the UK. The three main impacts of the research have been: (i) to provide evidence that has resulted in a much larger proportion of sites now contributing to infrastructure provision than was initially intended in national policy; (ii) to provide evidence that influenced the decision to restructure affordable housing grants, resulting in better use of around £2.8bn per annum of public expenditure and a greater supply of new housing for lower income households than would otherwise have been possible; and (iii) to inform best practice within local authorities, enabling many of them to use obligations to capture increasingly large contributions to infrastructure provision.
Professor Michael Keating has worked on various aspects of public policy-making in Scotland and abroad, supported primarily by the ESRC and Leverhulme Trust. Impact has taken the form of a series of collaborative academic-practitioner engagements, involving civil servants, politicians, and civil society actors. These events have focused on establishing a common vocabulary and core concepts, while exploring difficult issues in public policy and facilitating mutual learning between academics and practitioners. Insights from these encounters have been institutionalised in the Scottish Policy Innovation Forum, as well as ongoing seminars, public lectures, innovative training courses for civil servants, and informal discussions.
Research undertaken at LSE since 1995 has changed the terms of debate about land use planning and contributed to substantive changes in government policy. Planning was previously thought of as purely an environmental/design issue, but the underpinning research has demonstrated substantial economic effects on housing supply and affordability, housing market volatility, and on the productivity of economic users of space: it has shown that England's planning policies add up to 35% to housing costs, act as a tax equivalent of up to 800% on the cost of office space and since 1996 have reduced the productivity of a representative English supermarket by 32%. The work had significant influence on the two Barker Reviews and subsequent housing policy changes introduced by the Blair and Brown Labour governments. More recently it has influenced Coalition thinking and policy on planning's wider economic impacts.
This case study demonstrates how extensive University of Manchester (UoM) research over nearly two decades has led to a step change in policy monitoring practices, through the development of innovative indicator methodologies that have strong analytical, learning and spatial emphases. The key impact was the direct translation of a UoM research report into the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's (ODPM) official spatial planning monitoring guidance, with all 394 English local planning authorities required to comply with evidence-based plan-making. This work continues to shape the policy debates and practices of the UK Coalition Government, with impact extending internationally, influencing policy, debate and practice within: the EC, the UN, the World Bank, Australia and China (Shantou).
Chik Collins's research on the effects of neo-liberal policies on working class communities in contemporary Scotland has contributed to important changes and benefits beyond academia. It has supported community, third sector, professional and trade union organisations in developing appropriate strategies for action. Oxfam Scotland has used the research extensively in reconfiguring its UK Poverty Programme, and has instigated a Partnership with UWS to enhance this development. Public health professionals grappling with Scotland's lagging health outcomes have used the work in shifting their focus towards underlying causes and in reassessing prevailing public health interventions focused on `health behaviours'.
The European Institute for Urban Affairs' (EIUA) evidence, analyses and advocacy have shaped urban policies and decisively influenced policy makers in its city region, the UK and Europe. In recent years its major reports for government, the European Commission, Core Cities and the ESRC which demonstrate the crucial contribution of cities to the UK's national economic performance and welfare have had important policy impacts which are summarised in section 4. The Institute's work has driven the debate about the role and prospects of English cities and had a transformational effect on the way in which they are regarded and treated by government. In doing so the Institute has placed cities at the heart of economic policy making in the UK.
University of Glasgow research into public sector governance has influenced planning and investment in major transport and infrastructure projects. Transport Scotland's Strategic Transport Projects Review was the first nationwide, multi-modal, evidence based review of Scotland's transport system; as a member of the Board, Professor Iain Docherty contributed to its recommendations, adopted by the Scottish Government in December 2008. His research also shaped the Commission for Integrated Transport's negotiations with the Westminster Government on the White Paper which underpinned the Planning Bill 2008 and subsequent Planning Act 2009; informed the Cabinet Office's 2009 Urban Transport strategy and recommendations; and influenced 2012 investment planning discussions by Edinburgh City Council.