Signs we seek

Here are some starting points for what Monai wants to hear about in England – 

  • Planning practices based more on community participation and consent, and less on remote decision-making.
  • Increased provision for participation in local planning (vs national planning frameworks).
  • Homes designed and available for the life course, suitable for home enterprise and for peaceful co-existence internally and with neighbours.
  • Restored confidence in pride of place on an absolute rather than relative basis.
  • For a generous use of capital to be inseparable from the English idea of ‘home’.
  • Decentralisation of housing and economic policy to communities and regional investment owned by the community, for example through regional financial institutions that are wholly owned by citizens.

Practical signs of progress reported on Monai will include –

  • People sharing stories of how the processes above are happening in specific places.
  • Work to rehabilitate the wall as a positive concept for welfare: living walls, green walls, roofs and everything else wall-related.
  • Ownership of the commons and land justice – green spaces, public squares
  • Improvements in welfare arising from community owned and managed infrastructure – for example utilities, waste; roads, pavements and verges.