2025: How do we bring stakeholders and industry partners on the journey to plan and deliver people-orientated, inclusive and integrated places?

The roundtable brought together transport professionals from national government, regional and local authorities, and private sector organisations to discuss the ways stakeholders and industry partners can be brought on the journey to plan and deliver people orientated, inclusive and integrated places.

Challenges and barriers

The discussion started with the identification of a range of challenges and barriers that attendees have experienced on the topic, these included: 

• Lack of clear vision

• Siloed working

• Diverse stakeholder needs

• Insufficient early engagement

• Limited understanding of processes

• Resource constraints

• Data and evidence gaps

• Overpromising and under-delivering

• Procurement challenges

Opportunities

After potential challenges and barriers were identified, the discussion naturally followed onto opportunities:

• Clear vision and strategy: A clear, shared outcome-based vision that resonates with all stakeholders should be established early on, with a suitable level of flexibility to ensure that it can be adapted considering feedback and potential changing circumstances to emerge during the engagement process.

• Early engagement: Engaging with stakeholders as early as possible will ensure that their perspectives are captured to shape projects from the outset building trust, collaboration, and fostering a sense of shared responsibility. 

• Collaboration and co-design: In contrast to siloed working, co-designing fosters a sense of ownership and commitment for stakeholders and ensures that their insights and needs are central to shaping the project. 

• Communication and transparency: Trust should be built through transparency and maintaining open lines of communication with stakeholders, recognising the ripple effect of decisions on the broader system. 

• Evaluation and feedback: The importance of feedback loops and iterative processes in developing successful projects should be recognised. 

• Holistic approaches: Advocating for a whole systems approach that considers multiple factors beyond single issues. 

• Case studies and evidence: There is a need for an evidence base of data and case-study and good practice experience.

In summary, creating people-oriented, inclusive and integrated places requires moving beyond siloed thinking and working collaboratively across sectors. Early and meaningful stakeholder engagement to build trust and shared ownership, along with a shared vision is key. It might take effort to build, but along with co-design, and transparency it will strengthen both partnerships and results. Finally, strong evidence and real-world case studies are essential to support better decisions and build confidence in the project. Bringing all relevant industry partners to the table takes effort but makes the basis for inclusive and lasting solutions.