The Built Environment Committee has published a policy letter to three Secretaries of State, following its inquiry into young people and the built environment. Policy letter: Young People and the Built Environment.
The key findings from the inquiry are:
- Early and meaningful engagement with children and young people can reduce commercial risk to developers by minimising delays and building trust in the community.
- As well as reducing commercial risk, effective engagement with children and young people can allow developers to gather valuable feedback to inform decision making and ultimately create better places.
- The UK is approaching one million young people aged 16 to 24 who are not in education, employment or training and at the same time, the built environment sector is facing an acute skills crisis, particularly for planners and construction workers.
- Proactive, early engagement with children and young people, particularly in educational settings, can help to challenge stereotypes, highlight previously unknown career opportunities, and ultimately help strengthen pathways into the built environment sector.
- Learning about the sector, particularly through meeting professionals and school outreach, can develop young people’s interest, and demonstrate to them that the sector has something to offer and aspire to.
- Strengthening career pathways into the built environment for children and young people can both support the Government’s development ambitions and highlight otherwise unknown opportunities.
- Today’s generation of children and young people are the most digitally connected in history. The Committee heard evidence about the use of digital tools, particularly video games, as a means to engage children and young people, and develop their interest in the built environment sector. Video games, including Minecraft, The Sims, and even Assassin’s Creed are increasingly young people’s first introduction into the themes of world building, construction, and design, and have become a pathway into the wider built environment sector.
- With government leadership the Committee believes that the built environment sector and educators should seek to embrace video games as a tool for connecting to the younger generation to the built environment.
Lord Gascoigne, Chair of the Built Environment Committee, said: “If we want to tackle the so-called NIMBY vs YIMBY debate, if we want to grow the economy and build more homes, if we want people to feel they are shaping their own communities then looking at ways of engaging and involving young people is an enormous step forward.
“Children and young people care about the built environment and effective engagement with them can help to reduce commercial and planning risk and create sustainable, cohesive places.
“It is also crucial that young people are engaged with in a manner they understand. We were told about the use of digital tools, particularly video games, as a means to engage children and young people, and develop their interest in the built environment.”
