Shared Voice has called on government to reform the way community consultation operates in the planning system, warning that current engagement practices are contributing to delays, reduced housing delivery and declining public trust. They are calling for planning consultation to move away from a tick-box mentality towards more representative engagement that includes positive voices.
In a response submitted to the government’s consultation on reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), Shared Voice argues that the planning system’s approach to consultation is structurally flawed and risks undermining the delivery of homes and infrastructure.
Shared Voice says traditional consultation methods, including public exhibitions, drop-in events and open-ended ‘tell us what you think’ exercises, tend to amplify the most vocal and organised participants rather than reflecting the views of the wider community.
According to the submission, this dynamic can lead to costly and counterproductive outcomes across both infrastructure and housing projects.
Wyn Evans, a Co-Founder and Director of Shared Voice said:
“For infrastructure projects, poorly designed consultation can trigger a destructive cycle of noise, scheme changes, rising costs and delay.”
“In residential development, the same dynamic often results in schemes being reduced in scale to manage local opposition, which in turn squeezes viability and ultimately leads to fewer affordable homes being delivered.
“The planning system often hears from the people most opposed to change, but rarely from the people who need homes, infrastructure and investment.”
Shared Voice argues that these outcomes are not the result of poor intent from local authorities or developers, but of consultation models that rely heavily on self-selecting participation.
The company says that most people who would benefit from development, including renters, younger residents and those struggling with housing affordability, are significantly under-represented in traditional consultation processes.
“Planning consultation currently reaches the ‘usual suspects’ - the time-rich and highly motivated,” the submission states.
“Meanwhile, the people who stand to gain most from new homes, infrastructure and economic investment are rarely heard.”
The response also challenges the increasing emphasis placed on architectural design discussions within planning engagement. While design is important, Shared Voice argues that communities are typically far more concerned with issues such as housing affordability, infrastructure capacity, transport and economic opportunity.
“Planning reform should avoid equating better engagement with more design discussion,” the submission says. “Communities want to talk about real trade-offs, relating to homes, services, transport and affordability, not just aesthetics.”
Instead, Shared Voice recommends that planning consultation should evolve towards more representative and evidence-based engagement. This could include:
· representative polling conducted by accredited organisations.
· structured deliberative forums such as focus groups.
· greater use of demographic, housing and infrastructure data.
· consultation models designed to measure genuine community sentiment rather than simply recording objections.
It also calls on government to modernise formal consultation processes within the planning system itself. A key element is improving the usability of planning portals and ensuring that it is as easy for residents to register support for schemes as it is to submit objections.
Shared Voice further recommends giving greater planning weight to genuine testimony from local people, while applying less weight to template letters, petitions and submissions suspected of being generated by AI agents trawling through planning documents.
The company says supporter audiences should have the same opportunity as objectors to speak at planning committees, and that these approaches should also be extended to Local Plan engagement, where consultations are often dominated by a small minority focused on specific site allocations rather than the broader housing and infrastructure needs of an area.
Shared Voice was established to improve participation in planning decisions and to ensure that supportive voices, those who need homes and infrastructure, are heard in the planning process.
Over the past three years the organisation has helped motivate more than 10,000 residents to support planning applications, contributing to approvals for over 20,000 homes.
It says that reforming consultation practices is essential if the planning system is to regain its ‘positive mission’.
“Planning reform is often framed as a technical challenge,” the submission concludes.
“But the system also needs cultural change. Consultation should deliver better outcomes for developers, local authorities and local communities.”