International Women’s Day: The past, present and future shaping women’s experiences in the Planning Industry

Planning for equality and diversity in London Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG)

Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) is issued by the Mayor of London to provide additional detail on how London Plan policies should be interpreted and applied in practice. SPGs cover a wide range of topic areas, offering practical guidance to support consistent and effective decision‑making across London.

One strand of this wider suite of guidance focuses on equality, diversity and inclusion. This includes principles around inclusive planning, meaningful community engagement and the use of Equality Impact Assessments – tools that help ensure women and girls’ needs are systematically considered in shaping the built environment.

Far from being a token gesture, this guidance represents a genuine opportunity to embed gender‑inclusive thinking into spatial planning, helping to support women as users of space.

The Mayor of London’s Work on Violence Against Women & Girls (VAWG)

There’s a wider angle than just women in the planning industry as London Mayor Saddiq Khan is aiming to create a safer environment for women and girls in the Capital. The VAWG strategy prioritises a public health and prevention-first approach, specifically targeting:

• • Prevention and education – including a citywide schools toolkit to address misogyny
  • Partnership working across planning, policing, transport and community sectors
  • Designing safer environments, recognising that women’s confidence in public spaces is shaped by lighting, visibility, activity levels, and design quality

And we are seeing these considerations are increasingly filtering into informing built environment decisions, from local authorities, construction, education and further afield.

Inclusive Play & Public Realm Design: Addressing Girls’ Exclusion

According to London-based charity Make Space for Girls (MSFG), 80% of public spaces are predominantly used by men and boys, leaving teen girls feeling less welcome to the traditional ‘youth provision’ areas such as skate parks, recreation grounds and more.

MSFG have highlighted that the design of these parks cater more to the male demographic and are therefore campaigning to ensure teenage girls engage directly in the design process to ensure spaces meet their needs to create a safe and enjoyable environment.

The project is not about adding a few extra activities to a play park. It seeks to co‑design genuinely gender‑inclusive spaces with teenage girls and to rebalance parks away from solely sports‑dominated facilities. That means places to sit, talk and linger; improving lighting, sightlines, maintenance and toilets; and sustaining programmed activities – all of which help girls feel both safe and welcome.

New & Emerging Guidance: Gender-Informed Urban Design

The London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) has launched the “Creating Places That Work for Women and Girls” handbook, to embed gender‑informed design into planning, development and long‑term management across the LLDC planning area.

This non‑statutory guidance is informed by robust local evidence (including engagement with around 1,000 women and girls) and offers practical steps for developers and designers to incorporate women and girls’ lived experiences through participatory design, governance mechanisms and impact measurement.

LLDC is the first local planning authority in the UK to publish such guidance. While its primary application is within LLDC’s area, it is already helping to shape wider practice by providing a clear, evidence‑based model that other authorities may choose to draw upon.

Bringing It Together: What This Means for Planning Practice

There have been large strides taken over the last decade to start a two-way communication with women, asking questions that will make significant changes within the workplace and community, ensuring a safe environment for women now and in future. London is leading the charge for gender-inclusive planning, setting the national benchmark for other towns and cities to follow.

Encouraging women and girls to share their own experiences to guide meaningful spatial planning has been long-awaited but also highlights the geographical imbalance between the Capital and the rest of the country. These approaches are advanced and in theory, discussed as a priority for local authorities, yet they don’t seem to be implemented much beyond the M25 in practice.

And when the policies only offer guidance around gender considerations rather than mandatory requirements, you can see how easy it is to be inconsistent with women’s and girls’ needs across the UK.

Whilst the research and recommendations from studies has opened doors to a new dawn of planning, translating it into legislation is still in its infancy. Projects to reimagine play space design and safety audits are currently in the pilot phase and will take years to become the norm. To keep the momentum going to create meaningful change, there needs to be more regimented application including:

• • Explicit policy wording referencing women and girls,
  • Mandatory consideration of gender within Equality Impact Assessments,
  • Wider adoption of tools like women’s safety audits, and
  • Systematic engagement with women and girls at the earliest stages of design.

Ultimately, gender‑inclusive planning must become a standard part of creating good places – not a niche or London-only initiative. The sector now has a clear evidence base, growing policy guidance, and strong London examples. The next step is ensuring other regions follow suit, embedding these principles into local plans, design codes and decision‑making frameworks.