UCL’s prof Pablo Sendra has published an article on how the tricky term co-design should properly be defined and used. He writes “There is a lack of definition in policy of the term co-design, and yet local authorities and developers are increasingly using it. To avoid this term becoming meaningless, it is essential to define how to run co-design processes ethically. Building on case studies, professional experience, collaborations with communities in Just Space and elsewhere, and a Participatory Action Research approach, this paper defines a set of principles on how to run a co-design process ethically and genuinely including communities in decision-making. Departing from the legal Principles for Fair Consultation in England and Wales, the paper expands them and results into ten ethical principles for co-design.
The article is free to read at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13574809.2023.2171856 and has been short-listed for the @RTPIPlanners Research Awards for the “The Sir Peter Hall Award for Excellence in Research and Engagement”.
The ten principles are summarised as follows:
Just Space 
For any collaboration to work, there must be an intention to find out what people want and need and then implement it. Currently, in most cases, what councils, developers, housing associations etc want is not in the interests of most people, so there will never be genuine collaboration. It will just be for show, or a cover up, whatever it’s called.
Pat Turnbull