East of England

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Supporting community business
In the East of England

Close to 150 grants have been awarded by Power to Change to community businesses in the East of England, many of which operate in the hospitality sphere, from community pubs and shops to much needed leisure and sports facilities.

Suffolk, with its beautiful seaside towns like Southwold has also been a priority place. Here, 60% of the houses are occupied as second homes. High rents and high rates are driving independent businesses out of the town and young people are leaving the area because they cannot find meaningful work and housing within their budgets. The area has one of the lowest rates of social mobility in the country.

Power to Change, through its Community Business Fund and Community Shares Booster programme, has helped SouthGen, a community benefit society, redevelop a closed hospital threatened with luxury development, into a Makers, Shakers and Bakers Place creating new businesses, new jobs, new training and new hope for the local people.

Doug Field

Chair, New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership

Case studies
FROM the east of england

Hip Hop Heals

A Birmingham-based organisation that bridges the gap between hip hop and therapy....

Giroscope

Founded by a group of young radicals in Hull in the 1980s, Giroscope’s self-help housing is regenerating the neighbourhood with a new generation of young...

BlueJam Arts

BlueJam Arts is a dynamic hub for intergenerational music and arts in rural Cumbria which puts young people in the lead of its programmes and operations, and their own creative...

Bristol Co-operative Gym

Accessible, affordable, and inclusive, Bristol Co-operative Gym is founded by millennials, run by its members, and designed to strengthen everyone in the...

Coexist Community Kitchen

Coexist Community Kitchen offers a vibrant, welcoming space in central Bristol for people of all ages to find dignity and confidence through cooking....

Sister Midnight

The young women on a mission to establish Lewisham’s first community owned live music...

People Dem Collective

From a living room meet up to plans to take over a five-story building, People Dem Collective are proudly taking up space in...

Friends of the Joiners Arms

A strong community standing up to save threatened LGBTQ+ spaces in Tower Hamlets,...

Future Yard

A brand new community venue in one of the country’s most deprived wards exists as a template for how contemporary music venues can be run while proudly proclaiming: The Future is...