Ensuring that Communities are Self Sustaining

Care should be taken to ensure that the legacy left behind can foster opportunities for local people to live, work and socialise in a safe and attractive place. Design is only one aspect of what can make a place work well.

There are many ways in which developments can encourage communities to function better and engender the growth of a community. To ensure that communities can be self-sustaining in the long term new developments can be supported through:

• Funding for communities to buy land to establish facilities or support community initiatives
• Subsidies to enable a diverse range of uses which would not be viable without a larger population
• Provide buildings for local use
• Establish a central point of information to encourage interaction
• Support neighbourhood management through facilitation
• Ensure residents from all tenures have opportunities to be involved in community activities

Residents and businesses should be encouraged to become involved in shaping their environments. In addition to providing community benefits in terms of improving the environment and facilities it can also raise skills and confidence of individuals. Forums can include management companies, residents associations, Business Improvement Districts and single-issue groups.

Keeping places safe can be a key factor in their long term success as crime and the fear of crime are often the single greatest considerations in determining the quality of life. Neighbourhood watch, neighbourhood wardens and community support officers can all contribute to making communities safer.