Skills for Sustainable Communities

The Governments response to concerns about the kind of poor quality town centre development and planning processes that created tower blocks, was to commission the Egan Report - which it charged to examine the development of sustainable communities. The Egan Report concluded there were significant gaps in the training, which the people and organisations that are involved in the planning process received. Action has been taken to address this need for additional training and encourage the development of communities, which people wanted to live in (Sustainable Communities).

Inspire East who are a division of the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) have awarded a contract to the East of England Chamber of Commerce asking them to design and implement a project that;

• That researches and confirms the need for training in the 13 generic skills which are not covered by the conventional training those people who are involved in the planning process normally receive.
• Designs and delivers the training that is required to address the existing training gaps and develop the generic skills, which are needed to create more sustainable communities and town centre developments for the future

Through its involvement in this project the Chambers of Commerce are helping more than 200 people across the eastern region to develop new skills so the kind of communities which people want to live and work in are created in the eastern region.