Applying Poverty Impact Assessment

Client: Public

The Challenge

The Planning Authority is confronted with the preparation of a local area plan to meet the needs of a community which has areas of social disadvantage, minority communities and life cycle requirements for both young and older people.

The Response

The local area plan was drafted with a PIA fully embedded into the process. This allowed the forward planners to comprehensively address the range of social needs confronting the community and to set out a series of policies and objectives which will now direct development of the area concerned for the next several years. Consultation with the affected disadvantaged communities was enhanced to levels previously not undertaken with those communities.

The Effect

The local area plan is now in place. It is a model of planning consistent with the objectives of national planning policy, the national action plan on social inclusion and provides a best practice model for application of poverty impact assessment internationally.