Impact case study database

1. Informing policy and shaping the practice of government, planning professionals and policy institutes

After Rogers completed the Being Built Together project ( G1) he founded and led the Faith and Place network ( G2) between 2014 and 2016. The network was established to explore issues at the interface of faith, place and planning for minority faith groups in England and Wales with the specific objective of informing policy through engagement with policymakers at the local, regional and national governmental levels. The network brought together 70 members including 12 faith group representatives, academics from multiple disciplines, planners, policy makers, local and national government representatives and civil society organisations for the first time. As a result of this group’s work, and building on the Being Built Together: Final Report ( IMP1), Rogers co-authored Faith Groups and the Planning System: A Policy Briefing ( IMP2). This briefing was the basis of engagement with 363 local planning authorities in England and Wales.

The policy briefing ( IMP2) informed changes to the public planning documents of local governments, laying the groundwork for material changes to planning for religious groups. For example, Barking and Dagenham Council commissioned a study of future religious spatial needs in the borough to 2050 (funded by G3) which incorporated Rogers’ recommendation for the provision of facilities suitable for use by faith groups. This study, informed by Rogers’ research, is now included in the Council’s evidence base to support the development of the Local Plan ( IMP3). The Scottish government cited the briefing ( IMP2) in the ‘Religion and Belief’ section of the Equality Impact Assessment on the Planning (Scotland) Bill, describing the document as ‘the main evidence of the planning issues under this characteristic’ ( IMP4).

Rogers’ briefing document ( IMP2) has also been taken up by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), the UK’s leading planning body for spatial, sustainable and inclusive planning, with over 23,000 members, which cited the briefing in evidence to a Department of Communities and Local Government Select Committee on issues relating to ‘the protection afforded institutional land use currently as a means for helping faith groups’. The RTPI’s evidence concluded that ‘numerous faith groups can be in cities and… the need to cater for new groups emerging is essential’ ( IMP5) and the RTPI’s Head of Policy Practice further testified to the awareness of new ways of working raised by Rogers’ briefing, including the necessity of engaging directly with faith communities ‘to put our needs as professionals’ to them. Rogers’ research is already influencing the work that RTPI members currently do ‘with partners on the future of the high street and town centres. It is increasingly clear that town centres need to diversify from retail use and faith use would be a very suitable one… mean[ing] that faith uses are increasingly suitably located in places easy to reach by sustainable modes of transport’ ( IMP6).

Rogers’ research has provided an example to other projects by policy institutes, which have subsequently undertaken research into the relationship between faith groups and public planning professionals. For example, Theos, a think tank which aims to reframe discussions about faith groups in the public eye, published a report on Religious London that acknowledged Rogers’ research as an inspiration for the project. As they observe, ‘In 2019, this work was a key resource for our research project ‘Religious London’ ( https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/research/2019/02/19/religious-london).’ In particular, Theos attribute Rogers’ research with their greater awareness of ‘the multiplication of diaspora congregations in particular areas’ and ‘issues around building use… and the urgent need for attention from public authorities to the need for more worshipping spaces in light of demographic trends’. Based on this greater awareness, the researchers opted to further explore these themes through a set of interviews in area-based case studies, causing them to highlight the need for the development of community infrastructure, including worshipping space, in their report. The report was publicised in major news media outlets, including The Guardian, The Independent and The Times ( IMP7).

1. Inspiring cultural organisations and creative practice

Rogers’ report ( G1) inspired Tate Modern to commission a publication and photographic exhibition about BMCs in Southwark in 2014. As Rogers found, in 2014 there were more than 240 BMCs in Southwark, all acting not just as spaces of faith, but also as sources of advice on health, relationships, and law and order. The Tate Modern Curator who commissioned the exhibition commented, ‘Both Chloe Dewe Mathews, the artist we had commissioned, and I had read “Being Built Together” [ IMP1] and were very inspired to learn of the findings and information that has been gathered as part of the report - in particular we were inspired by your findings about the volume of new black majority churches in Southwark’ ( IMP8). In response to this finding, a photographic artist explored these new forms of church life and the reinvention of former industrial spaces in an exhibition commissioned by Tate Modern called ‘Sunday Service’, which ran free of charge from 28 May to 13 July 2014 and was attended by 2,000 members of the public. The research also provided ‘a launching point’ for the 2014 edition of Tate Modern and You, a publication that is regularly produced in partnership with a neighbourhood or section of the local community, in collaboration with an artist, aiming to make stronger links with different communities across Southwark and Lambeth boroughs. 1,000 copies of the 2014 edition were circulated. Following the success of ‘Sunday Service’, the exhibition was subsequently followed up by a video installation called ‘Congregation’ at Bosse & Baum, an art gallery in Peckham, which ran from 29 May to 21 June 2015 and attended by 500 members of the public. Rogers’ research was cited as an inspiration for the research on both exhibition webpages ( IMP9). The photographic artist further observed that Rogers’ research ‘gave me a framework to consider and, through my art, document how the spaces in which these Black Majority Churches are not just places of worship, but also sites at which health, relationship and legal advice are ordered’ ( IMP10).