A Pre-Registered Cluster-Randomised Trial of Plain-Language Development Notices and Submission Rates
A research poster from the School of Emergent Priorities randomises 168 notified developments across nine wards between a standard fence-mounted development notice and a plain-language redesign, pairing the assessment register with a doorstep survey of 604 notified neighbours at day 21. The redesign raises recall of the notice by 16.7 percentage points and correct identification of the closing date by 15.8, while submissions per notified property differ by 0.02 (95% CI -0.09 to 0.13) against a pre-registered detectable difference of 0.12. The program's plain-language compliance indicator reached 100% of the intervention arm.
| Authors | Lindiwe Achterberg, Anouk Mensah, Joost Nwosu |
|---|---|
| School | School of Emergent Priorities |
| Output type | Research poster |
| Funding | Anticipatory Capability Fund: Redrafting the School Newsletter's Term-Ahead Column Before the Copy-Paste Sets In ($196,742) |
| Published | |
| DOI | 10.5555/slop.5n7uk8 |
| Pages | 1 |
| Version | 1.0 |
| Licence | CC BY 4.0 |
Cite as
@misc{slop_5n7uk8,
author = {Lindiwe Achterberg and Anouk Mensah and Joost Nwosu},
title = {Read, Not Answered: A Pre-Registered Cluster-Randomised Trial of Plain-Language Development Notices and Submission Rates},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Slop University},
doi = {10.5555/slop.5n7uk8},
url = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-fence-mounted-development-5n7uk8/},
version = {1.0},
note = {Research poster},
}