This project has been designed to directly inform the discussion, design and delivery of planning policy and the governance, resourcing and regulation of development. To date, summary findings have been circulated to a broad range of stakeholders through a public webinar hosted in June 2020. Those who participated included:

• Elected decision-makers responsible for the oversight and legislative reform of planning systems;

• Public sector planners and managers responsible for the delivery of planning systems;
• Private sector organisations seeking to develop and apply codes of ethical conduct and  improved customer and partner relationships;
• Researchers involved in the conceptualisation, analysis and evaluation of planning systems;
• Third sector groups and individuals seeking to represent public interests through the planning system.

Despite being at the early stages of dissemination, the project has attracted significant interest from the wider policy community and has received coverage in the national media (Macauley, 2020). The research team have been invited to share findings with Department for Infrastructure who are at the centre of the delivery of Northern Ireland’s planning system, as well as other third sector groups such as Development Trusts Northern Ireland who work to create more sustainable communities though collective local intervention in the social economy. The research team have been invited to share findings with Department for Infrastructure who are at the centre of the delivery of Northern Ireland’s planning system, as well as other third sector groups such as Development Trusts Northern Ireland (https://www.dtni.org.uk), who have used the research as a basis of their campaign to enhance community rights in the NI planning system (see https://www.dtni.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Building-the-Capacity-of-the-Planning-System-by-Jenny-Crawford-et-al.pdf).