NP11 comprises 11 North of England Local Enterprise Partnerships, representing business voices across the North.

We travelled to Bessie Surtees House, a Jacobean house in the heart of Newcastle, for an NP11 panel about placemaking and regeneration. Bessie Surtees House is home to Historic England’s Northeast offices and team.

The conversation focused on the challenges of ensuring developments are relevant and valuable to end-users; why outputs don’t always equate to satisfactory outcomes; and the need to shift the norm to emphasise placemaking’s central role in planning.

Developers aren’t the enemy. They’re fundamental to helping places get back on their feet and to grow and thrive.

But it’s not simply a case of them meeting the brief. Bricks and mortar, however well-designed, aren’t the answer in themselves. Typically, the brief will cover a development’s financial and physical needs but fail to look at wider social, environmental and intangible needs of the surrounding area. There’s no clear integration of place, economy and community.

Successful developments transform spaces into places. Places have meaning.