IPM asks: What would it take to make “Place First” real?

The Institute of Place Management is inviting the place community to help explore what a “Place First” approach should mean in practice following the Prime Minister’s statement to Parliament this week.

The Prime Minister spoke about places that have been “drifting”, high streets that have come to symbolise decline, and the need to give people and places greater ownership and control.

He set an ambition for “good growth in every postcode” and argued that resources and civil service capacity should increasingly move closer to places, “making the service of place the state’s first priority.”
He concluded by calling for a “place first rather than party first approach.”

For IPM, the question now is: what would it take to make that real?

This comes at a particularly important time for our work. IPM has recently contributed evidence to Parliament’s Revitalising High Streets inquiry and is engaging with developments around Pride in Place, neighbourhood governance and devolution.

We are also continuing our work on health and place, reviewing our 25 Priorities for successful places, and developing our CPD programme to support the skills and professional capabilities needed by those managing and leading places.

Over the coming months, we want to bring these conversations together and, crucially, hear from practitioners.

What gets in the way of putting place first? What needs to change? What powers, resources, skills and capacity do places need? And where is this already being done well?

We will explore these questions through IPM’s events, research, policy work and professional network.

If you work in place, join us. Come to our events, share your experience and help us explore what it will take to make Place First real.