The impact of Neighbourhood Development Plans on planning decisions

University crest
Hakjin Lee
PhD student
Planning, people and place
Hakjin's research aims to understand how Neighbourhood Development Plans interact with Local Development Plans.

Supervised by Dr Andy Inch and Dr Aidan While.

My research focuses on the work and effect of Neighbourhood Development Plans in decision-making. The aim is to understand how Neighbourhood Development Plans interact with Local Development Plans; how key actors interpret and perceive the plan in the decision-making process; and how those who produce the plan seek to ensure their plans are applied and upheld actually in practice.

This study particularly concentrates on planning applications and decisions within Neighbourhood Areas to analyse influence of Neighbourhood Development Plans on decision-making processes and to interview all of those involved, both tracing the plan is practically implemented and investigating how key actors’ perceptions and interpretations of the plan change over time, through different type of organisations and their Neighbourhood Development Plans in England. I hope that my research findings contribute to understanding and literature on the work of citizen-led plans and citizen-planners in relation to decision-making more generally in the planning system.


I graduated from Gachon University in the Republic of Korea with B.Eng. in Urban Planning in 2012, was awarded several planning and design prizes, and then conducted various research projects for public sectors at the Seoul Institute, Korea Real Estate Research Institute, and a private consulting company for 3 years. I was also awarded at Smart Phone Urban Film Festival in South Korea, illustrating urban diversity and coexistence of places preserved for history and tradition and places developed for growth.

Thereafter, I completed my M.Sc. in Urban and Regional Planning in 2015, at the University of Birmingham. My research was relating to creative economy and creative SMEs in place beyond the economic recession, focusing on how the creative policies and industries have changed since financial recession in 2008, and how its changes impact on creative businesses. Prior to becoming a PhD student in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the University of Sheffield, I worked as an assistant researcher at Korea Culture and Tourism Institute.