140th anniversary blogs

We are celebrating ADEPT's 140th anniversary year by showcasing the voices of past and present Presidents, reflecting on the evolution of place leadership and exploring the challenges, innovations and aspirations shaping the future of the sector. 

In his essay, Andrew Cook, 1st Vice President of ADEPT and Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director Growth, Highways and Infrastructure at Suffolk County Council explores the question "what next for place?"

I have been involved with ADEPT in various guises for approximately a dozen years.  I am 1st Vice President and also Chair of the East of England Board. In the day job I have responsibility for Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport functions for Suffolk County Council and have held similar positions in other authorities. That experience has given me a front-row seat to the evolution of local place leadership, from an era dominated by infrastructure and growth to one increasingly centred on people, resilience and wellbeing, and of course increasing fiscal restraint!

Ironically, ‘place’ as an umbrella term is actually for me all about the people who live, work, shop or spend their leisure time in our locations, both urban and rural. Our role is to provide a fabric and services that facilitate and enhance people’s lives and experiences. Place-based interventions can dramatically improve the quality of people’s experiences, whether this is traditional urban public realm and renewal schemes, or access to green open space in the countryside and everything in between.

In essence, place leadership is people leadership. Every decision we make about infrastructure, environment or transport should begin and end with the lived experience of the communities we serve.

The future of local leadership

I believe the next decade will bring a further acceleration of a trend that we have seen becoming more prevalent in the last few years. There is a need for our leadership to move away from traditional infrastructure and physical regeneration expertise and towards softer skills that see us respond collaboratively with other sectors to the challenges of society as we now find it.

Ageing residents, young people with greater needs, educational system deficiencies failing our employers and a growing social expectation that issues are ‘someone else’s problem’ to solve, rather than a collective endeavour - all these factors require a shift in how we lead.

Our biggest opportunity is our greatest challenge - how do we remain relevant to the people we serve as society rapidly evolves in the 21st century? Keeping pace with digital transformation, and how people consume services and information, will require a change in approach from place leaders, particularly to ensure that we can reach those in our society who are most in need of support.

As indicated above, making the link between people and place is key – how can the work that we do facilitate better outcomes for our communities and people, particularly those who need local authority support services the most? To thrive in this context, local leaders will need to act as connectors, bridging sectors, disciplines and communities, tacking issues of mobility, social cohesion and isolation along the way. 

The future of ADEPT

The direction of travel is clear - ADEPT needs to continue to broaden its membership and continue engagement with other parts of the public sector. The need to illustrate the preventative power of place-based interventions that can improve outcomes for people and reduce health and care needs will be key.

More social prescribing, more preservation and access to nature, more climate and air quality mitigation, and more holistic regeneration for our most deprived places.

The shift from piecemeal place-based interventions and services delivered on a shoestring following years of austerity, to a more holistic approach where place-based delivery is seen across the sector as a legitimate tool to reduce ‘people’ service demand, is about turning the tide of societal change and, as a result, is a generational undertaking.

We can play a central role in demonstrating that investing in place is an investment in prevention – in healthier, more resilient and more productive communities.

It’s easy to pick holes in the work of our predecessors with the benefit of hindsight, but there are a significant number of examples up and down the country where the drive for progress has left us with an historic legacy of physical division created by urban relief roads and dual carriageways. These have created separation for communities, accessibility issues for many residents, and social problems arising from the poor urban fabric that abuts them.

Looking ahead

As custodians of our communities, we need to ensure – either physically or digitally – that we don’t inadvertently leave the same negative legacy for our future communities. That means designing places that connect rather than divide, using data and technology responsibly, and ensuring that our digital infrastructure enhances inclusion rather than deepening inequality.

My advice for future leaders is that ‘place’ is all about ‘people’. The next generation of place leaders will need courage to challenge the status quo, curiosity to learn from other sectors, and compassion to keep people at the heart of every decision.

If ADEPT’s first 140 years have been about building and shaping places, the next 140 must be about enabling people and communities to flourish within them.

Further information

• Read the full collection of essays.
• Find out more about our 140th anniversary here.

Author

• Andrew Cook, 1st Vice President of ADEPT and Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director Growth, Highways and Infrastructure at Suffolk County Council