On 29 November, Living Places, a powerful new partnership of cultural bodies and Government departments, launched an eight point action plan to bring the benefits of culture and sport to communities.

Culture and sport are key elements in creating communities which people are proud to call their home. Living Places will help realise people’s aspirations by helping house builders, planners and all those helping to shape communities, build in culture and sporting facilities from the outset.

The Living Places eight point action plan is as follows:

1. Living Places will create a single portal for evidence and best practice. A new website at www.living-places.org.uk (currently under development) will include an archive of research, evidence and case studies to encourage wider adoption of culture and sport as tools to meet sustainable community goals.

2. Living Places will create a Culture Planning Toolkit, a step by step online guide to help sustainable community practitioners integrate culture and sport into their work.

3. Living Places will produce guidance for communities, to help people bring appropriate cultural and sporting infrastructure and activities into their own areas.

4. Living Places will commission new research to improve the base of evidence that shows culture and sport have widespread benefits beyond their intrinsic values.

5. Living Places members will back the efforts of local and regional practitioners with expertise and resources and will ensure investments are better aligned towards common goals.

6. Living Places will explore ways to provide training and skills to sustainable community practitioners who want to use culture and sport in their work.

7. Living Places will focus first on five priority places that will help members understand the role of culture within communities of varying scales. The places identified are: Thames Gateway, The South West region, Corby, Partnership for Urban South Hampshire (PUSH), and Pennine Lancashire.

8. Living Places will encourage greater and wider participation in culture through a range of programmes across the country.

Living Places members include Arts Council England, CABE, English Heritage, Museums, Libraries and Archives Partnership, the Regional Cultural Consortiums, Sport England, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.