The Scottish Government is to introduce legislation during this parliament to encourage Community Wealth Building as Scotland's core approach to economic development.  A consultation on the proposed Bill has just concluded.  The aim is to enact new - or amend existing - laws to accelerate this form of economic development in Scotland.  What is Community Wealth Building?  How will it reform who takes decisions locally on what is spent - and on how, where and for what purpose?  The Bill's aim will be to bring economic transformation and to create empowered, resilient local communities.  Therefore, change is coming which will affect current decision makers in the public sector and their other sectoral partners.  Who will lead decision making in the future and how will communities be involved in that process?  How will this affect your organisation?

This conference will take place online.

Placemaking now sits at the heart of almost all policy development and delivery in Scotland.  It is both an objective and a process.  However the cumulative resources needed to deliver effective placemaking across all Scottish project scales and geographies are significant.  Where, therefore, will the funding come from to match demand?  How do we reconcile the differing needs of both the public and private sectors?  What will it take to move placemaking in Scotland from planning to delivery?

Scotland is not short of projects with the potential to deliver successful placemaking.  However the objectives of the public sector and the challenges facing the private sector often conflict, threatening to limit placemaking at scale.  The public sector expects the highest environmental standards and quality of public realm, driven by the need to support sustainable and successful communities while driving for net zero.  Developers increasingly argue that development is now becoming too expensive to do with all the add-ons required by policy and sought during development negotiation.

Can the Scottish Government and the Scottish public sector put more resource on the table to draw the private sector into investing?  The public sector balance sheet is not strong.  Is it possible for Scottish Government investment to be more tailored, joined-up and coherent across sectoral, service and project boundaries?

This conference looks at what it will really take to deliver on Scotland's placemaking potential.  It considers the key factors to be addressed across national and local government and the role of other agents and players.  It reflects on the challenge of ensuring placemaking projects are not thwarted by silo practices in how budgets, policy and decision making are controlled by various partners.

The conference examines these challenges in three sessions:

This conference will take place online

Planners, developers and communities are all anxious to secure a well-balanced national planning framework for Scotland following the implementation of NPF4. However, a range of challenges lie ahead in meeting the demands around development planning and management, resourcing the planning system adequately and driving best practice performance. This conference explores the key themes flowing from the adoption and implementation of NPF4 and the roll out of supporting guidance and explores what all stakeholders need to know about what is happening now and what is coming next.