#ViewsOnComms: public relations, places and life in the South West
My blog on jargon in UK housing generated a great response and was my most popular post of last year.
I’ve not had time until recently to follow through on my promise to turn the feedback into an online resource. Today’s Twitter discussions about the importance of having a shared narrative and housing ‘owning our future’ (or #OOF) makes this a timely post.
Continue reading “Owning our future: why dropping jargon matters”
“Every penny you spend on housing subsidy is money you can’t spend on building houses.”
David Cameron at Prime Minister’s Questions, 10 February
Sound bites can be a useful way to convey a simple, memorable point.
Used well, they can conjure powerful, evocative messages that people remember. Politicians love them and use them to distill grand and complex plans into a key point.
Problem is they often miss the fundamental, complex realities that are an essential part of the story. When that happens, people are more likely to misunderstand the issue at hand.
Housing has been tested by this issue for some time, and none more so than in recent weeks.
Continue reading “Why housing must get its story straight”
“The profession is polarising between those practitioners that are cracking on and using new forms of media to engage publics in two-way dialogue and those that continue to spam journalists with press releases.
“The former have a great future in the business. The latter will be out of job within a generation.”
Stephen Waddington (@wadds) on the future of PR.
After thousands of discussions, the West of England’s #WEbuildourfuture consultation ended yesterday (Friday 29 January).
This was an important and challenging conversation about housing and transport for the area’s four local authorities. Where 85,000 new homes should go and how transport should work are complex and thorny issues, with many differing and competing opinions. The last three months have seen the councils engage in genuine and thought-provoking exchanges. I hope it demonstrates the good practice Steven Waddington refers to in his quote above.
Continue reading “How social can fuel great local conversations”
If you’ve read any posts, columns and opinions about 2015, it would be easy to think that last year was a bad one.
Columnisrs have negative tendencies, but it seems that there’s plenty to trouble us. Terrorism, austerity, economic under-performance, migration, Europe and runaway house prices all point to a bad year.
I’ve also had many conversations about ‘leadership failure’ over many of these issues. It seems that people have had enough of being soft-soaped. This was demonstrated in Jeremy Corbyn’s extraordinary victory over the ‘Westminster elite’ in the Labour leadership campaign. It was also expressed in nastier ways through trolling and threats dealt out on social media.
Opinion formers have an appetite for predictions at this time of year. After so many people called the big events wrong in 2015, it’s daft to attempt it for the coming year.
I want to be optimistic and set out some hopes for 2016. Some relate to national issues, others are more local and there’s a personal one too. All are important to me and, if they happen, it should be a good year.
Continue reading “No predictions, just 3 hopes for 2016”
A big conversation is happening around Bristol that could shape local housing and transport for decades to come.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been working with colleagues to get ready for a major consultation which could map where thousands of new homes are built across the West of England over the next 20 years.
The phrase ‘West of England Joint Spatial Plan and Transport Study‘ won’t set pulses racing. But the issues it covers should interest anyone who has views about where they live, how they get to work or school or whether they will be able to keep a roof over the heads in future.
Continue reading “If where you live matters, join the #WEbuildourfuture conversation”
“I’m delighted with the new development that’s being built in xxx. It’s a huge success story which local people and partners can be proud of.”
How many times have you read – or written if you’re a comms person – something like that and really taken it in?
Like ‘transformation’ or ‘ground-breaking’, such words can be used so often that they start to mean very little.*
Then there are projects like Cranbrook in Devon, where slogans don’t do justice to what’s happening on the ground. Based on the fringes of Exeter, when complete, Cranbrook promises to include around 6,000 homes, schools, a town centre and a host of other amenities and jobs.
After more than 20 years in gestation, building work started in 2011. Now residents live in more 800 homes and the primary school which opened in 2012 has more than 300 kids.
That this has happened in the face of the downturn is remarkable, and every time I visit I’m amazed at the progress.
Continue reading “How we helped tell a housing success story”