Barry Quirk gets to grips with place shaping – the process of putting an individual ‘identity stamp’ on an area ‘Place shaping’ is the phrase of 2006. Local government has been, rightly, encouraged by Sir Michael Lyons to raise its eyes from the trenches of service delivery and recognise that its central role is shaping places. This is a great idea, but surely some people thought of it earlier? Isn’t that what local government politicians and managers have been about for hundreds of years? Place shaping is a seductive concept that could enthral us for years. But what does it actually mean? At one level, the idea calls us to mould and re-mould the places we work in, and to shape them so as to alter the mental maps of investors, visitors, and residents themselves, to improve places for the better. But how do we do this? Step forward the planners, architects and environmental determinists. They will advise how places can be revivified through high-quality design and development. And they have a powerful point. Who can deny the turnaround evidenced in Newcastle-Gateshead or central Birmingham? But shaping places is about communities as much as it is about environment. It is not simply a case of commissioning Antony Gormley to creater statues everywhere. And before you say it, an ‘Angel of south London’ may not be so far-fetched – after all, he studied at Goldsmiths College in New Cross (south London). But, I guess Gormley statues located everywhere would soon fail the place-shaping test – eventually, they would render landscapes more uniform, just as we are trying to celebrate their uniqueness. Place shaping is not just about points on a geographical surface – landmarks, both natural and man-made. If it was, the solution would be to build landmark buildings in each locality – a civic statue here, a landmark library there. Landmarks – visual points on a surface – are really important, since they can act as magnets, attracting attention and resources. But real place shaping is about re-moulding geographical surfaces themselves. That is why it is so hard. To truly shape places we need to start with a hard-headed assessment of places themselves and what makes them work, and what features fail them. None of us wants to serve localities which are ‘nice places to come from’. We want them to be great places to live now, and great places which help communities thrive in future. The place-shaping agenda requires us to find what is distinctive and unique in the localities we serve so that we can package and re-package them for a fleet-footed, globalised world of the early 21st century. The irony, as David Miliband often repeats, is that now capital is global and finds its cheapest route to flow; labour remains – largely – local and so, people want ever-stronger connections with their locality – with the place they call home. In a world appearing ever-more uniform – don’t you think everywhere is tending to look the same? – people crave a distinctive place to live. To do this we need to know how best to alter the economic geography of our localities. Local government has focused a great deal on the supply side of the equation – is our labour market skilled and flexible? We need also to contribute to the demand side. Here are three iron laws of economic geography that are worth putting in your place-shaping armoury: Unique locational advantages It is possible to find strengths and opportunities almost anywhere. After all, everywhere is unique. Deep harbours are great for ports and shipping; large rivers are great for boosting residential development; central locations are great for commerce and creativity; peripheral locations are great for tourism. What is the most distinctively-different aspect of your geography? Is it the landscape – natural or man-made – or is it the life of the community, of the history of its people? A trip to Great Yarmouth in Norfolk recently showed me how a peripheral location in the east of England looks for its economic future as much to the Netherlands – via new ferry services – as it does to London and the South East – for tourism. How can the genuine locational advantages of your area be turned to the advantage of your community? Agglomeration economies These cluster economies arise out of concentrations of markets or service-providers. On a beach, on a summer’s day, the theory would have it that two ice-cream salesmen would co-locate at the mid-point of the beach. Clusters start small, then grow, as internal advantages accrue to ‘insiders’, and at some point, external pressures or barriers to entry result in alternative clusters or spin-offs. The City of London is a fine example of agglomeration economies, and Canary Wharf is a classic alternative cluster. On a smaller scale, Hatton Garden is a cluster of jewellers, and Fleet Street was a cluster of newspaper headquarters where the internal costs became greater than the alternatives. What sort of cluster advantages can be gained in your locality or jointly, alongside your neighbouring localities? Don’t just pick something faddish. How many ‘cultural quarters’ can any area have? Pick something that will endure. Intervening opportunities This arises when people in ‘place A’ – say, Kent – don’t go to markets in ‘place B’ – say, Oxford Street – because ‘place C’ – say, Bluewater – is between them and has a market almost as good as place B. To defeat this logic place B’s market has to be worth the extra effort of travelling across place C for people in place A. Does your locality live in the shadow of another? Are you the intervening opportunity, or do you suffer from the opportunity afforded by others? How many people and businesses travel through your locality to go to a ‘better’ one and how can you begin to capture them? Place shaping calls us to rediscover geography. It reminds us of our responsibility to develop places people can be proud of to call home. Landmark buildings and signature developments are important. But, while sentiment is being strengthened, so too must underlying economic geography. Sir Michael Lyons is right, shaping places is surely one of our central purposes. n Barry Quirk is chief executive of Lewisham LBC