[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.22″ collapsed=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”4.10.7″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” width=”100%” custom_margin=”|auto|-34px|auto||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”4.10.7″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Jenny Sansom, policy officer, Power to Change.<\/em><\/p>\n This is my first Conservative Party conference and something that struck me immediately is that there\u2019s a different atmosphere here compared with last week\u2019s Labour Party conference in Brighton. There’s an added sense of gravity and seriousness, perhaps illustrated most notably in the much bigger security presence and airport-style bag x-rays on the way into the conference centre. The conversations and decisions taking place here this week, could be felt by the whole country in the coming months.<\/p>\n With levelling up now a central theme of this government, I\u2019m hoping to hear more this conference about what it will actually mean for local communities.<\/p>\n We know the Conservatives often put faith in large infrastructure projects as a way of aiming to connect and improve local areas. However, it will be interesting to hear how much, if any, discussion there will be about social infrastructure \u2013 the physical spaces and community facilities that bring people together to build meaningful relationships. Arguably, this is the glue that holds communities together.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.10.7″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”0px||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.10.7″ _module_preset=”default” width=”100%” custom_padding=”||2px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.10.7″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Granby-Four-Streets.jpg” alt=”Two vendors at a pop up veg stall in Granby Market.” title_text=”Granby Four Streets” admin_label=”Image” _builder_version=”4.10.7″ _module_preset=”default” module_alignment=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.10.7″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”0px||2px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.10.7″ _module_preset=”default” width=”100%” custom_padding=”12px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.10.7″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”4.10.7″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The fringe debate by the Tory Reform Group entitled \u2018Levelling Up: is it geographic or social?<\/a>‘ discussed community power alongside improving worker\u2019s rights, regenerating high streets, and market focussed industrial strategy.<\/p>\n One of the panellists, David Skelton, talked a lot about the need to empower people within their communities, bringing people together and giving them control over the decisions which affect them in their daily lives. I would have liked more detail on the mechanisms for how this could be achieved, but the principle is a welcome one.<\/p>\n Michael Gove\u2019s main speech in the afternoon didn\u2019t tell us much about the Minister\u2019s future intentions for local communities and the levelling up agenda.<\/p>\n However, it was encouraging to hear the new Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities beginning to define how he understands levelling up at the launch of Trusting the People<\/em><\/a> yesterday. This new paper by New Local and the New Social Covenant Unit, endorsed by 10 Conservative MPs, makes the case for a community-powered conservatism.<\/p>\n According to this Spectator write up of his remarks<\/a>, Gove was also taken by the idea that the government\u2019s role is to \u201cempower communities and allow them to take the decisions, rather than government deciding what is good for everyone\u201d. It will be good to see more detail on how he sees this working when the Levelling Up White Paper is published later in the autumn.<\/p>\n Looking forward to tomorrow, we have two Power to Change fringe events planned. At 9:00 we have \u2018Communities in the Lead: How we Unlock Community Power to Level Up<\/a>\u2019 hosted by ConservativeHome and in partnership with The Cares Family. We\u2019ll also be launching a new paper entitled \u2018Building our social infrastructure: <\/strong>Why levelling up means creating a more socially connected Britain\u2019.<\/p>\n Later on tomorrow at 12:15, during our partnership event with the think tank Onward, we\u2019ll be discussing \u2019Community Renewal: How to Turn Around Left Behind Neighbourhoods<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n Hopefully, the debate at these two events will help develop Conservative thinking on this subject and help answer our question on what levelling up means for communities.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hot on the heels of Labour, this week it\u2019s the turn of the Conservative Party to gather for its annual conference. Jenny Sansom reports from Manchester on what the party\u2019s focus on levelling up means in practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":27114,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"By Ailbhe McNabola, director of policy and communications, Power to Change.<\/em>\r\n\r\n\"\u2026 it turns out [that] places are sticky: the people of the former industrial towns were attached to them, and lacked the desire, or possibly the skills and contacts, to make moving to a big city an easy option.\"<\/strong>\r\n\r\n- Danny Kruger MP, Levelling up our communities<\/a> (2020)<\/strong>\r\n\r\nMany parts of the UK have struggled economically for at least the last 40 years. The UK, before the Covid-19 pandemic, was already the most spatially unequal society among developed nations<\/a> with communities in many places feeling \u2018left behind\u2019. In too many places, local people feel that their place has been neglected and they struggle to see how this could be turned around.\r\n\r\nOne might expect people in these places to look elsewhere for opportunity. But many can\u2019t move, or indeed don\u2019t want to, as Danny Kruger observed. People can\u2019t afford to move, haven\u2019t got the connections to do so, or feel a sense of belonging to a place and have family and other connections there. The solution to reviving places, restoring pride and improving the lives of local communities is not to assume that people will ship out, but rather it\u2019s to give the people who are committed to the place a chance to improve it for themselves \u2013 and, importantly, capture the value that they create in doing so.\r\nWhat does levelling up mean in practice?<\/h2>\n
On the agenda for day 2<\/h2>\n
What shapes a place?<\/h3>\r\nHistorically, local industry and trade have played a significant role in shaping our communities and generating local pride. To this day, 43 bottle kilns continue to dominate the cityscape of Stoke-on-Trent, a reminder of the area\u2019s once leading global ceramics industry. At its height there were more than 4,000 kilns and almost everyone living in the area was connected to the potteries. It generated a huge sense of pride for local people that continues today.\r\n\r\nIn more recent years, our towns have been shaped by more remote influences - central and local governments, developers and investors. They determine how towns and cities look and what\u2019s on offer. Of course, the wider local economic environment also dictates what places are like to live in \u2013 what kind of work is available, the transport infrastructure, housing, the leisure and cultural offer.\r\n
Communities shaping and reviving their places<\/h3>\r\nThis week the centre-right think tank Onward published Turnaround: How to regenerate Britain's less prosperous communities by helping them take back control<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> It calls on government to rethink its levelling up strategy and devolve power to local neighbourhoods. The research found that the most successful regeneration strategies of the last few decades were those that focused on smaller geographic areas such as neighbourhoods, invested in community capacity over the long-term, and helped communities take ownership of local assets.\r\n\r\nThe report echoes the findings of our recent paper Backing our Neighbourhoods<\/em><\/a>, where we argue that levelling up cannot succeed unless the government invests in social infrastructure \u2013 the physical spaces and community facilities which bring people together to build meaningful relationships. It\u2019s good to see a growing recognition of the importance of social infrastructure in levelling up. And how getting behind communities will deliver the government\u2019s ambitions. In fact, it\u2019s already happening.\r\n\r\nLocal, community-led development activity has been quietly transforming places in the UK for some years now. Places like Union Street in Plymouth, and the White Rock area in Hastings, where communities have come together to consult locally, establish community businesses, take on properties and revive previously ailing and neglected areas. Onion Collective in Watchet is about to open a \u00a37m community-led arts centre<\/a>, crucial to reviving the local economy and labour market in this struggling seaside town. And there are many, many more examples.\r\n\r\nLocal communities have been doing this, and doing it well, for many years \u2013 offering skills development and creating jobs, employing overwhelmingly (circa 80%) from the local area, and incubating and supporting new start-up businesses, while also improving the physical fabric of the area, boosting pride of place and enhancing the public realm.\r\n\r\nThe value they create is captured for the local community through community ownership of businesses and properties. At Power to Change, we are proud to back and support them.\r\n
Valuable lessons<\/h3>\r\nThere is learning here for those developing Government\u2019s levelling up agenda. It\u2019s interesting to look at what local people invest in and what they deliver \u2013 because they prioritise what matters to their community. They take on vacant and often derelict properties, they offer community spaces, workspaces, caf\u00e9s, sports and leisure facilities, libraries.\r\n\r\nThis is often what is referred to as \u2018social infrastructure\u2019, the physical spaces and community facilities which bring people together to build meaningful relationships<\/a> . The concept has been gaining currency in recent months, with many influential economic commentators and institutions talking about the importance of investing in social infrastructure to achieve greater prosperity and wellbeing.\r\n\r\nFor example, Frontier Economics<\/a> estimated that a \u00a31 million investment in community-led social infrastructure in a left-behind area could generate approximately \u00a31.2 million of fiscal benefits and \u00a32 million of social and economic benefits over a ten-year period, as well as other non-monetised benefits. And with New Philanthropy Capital highlighting that only approximately 13%<\/a> of the current major regeneration\/levelling up funding streams is likely to go towards social infrastructure, greater investment is needed.\r\n\r\nBut it\u2019s not just that more investment is called for. Both Onward\u2019s and our reports argue that investment in social infrastructure must be made alongside investment in physical infrastructure, because social infrastructure complements and supports the benefits that physical infrastructure can deliver, and because it matters to communities in the places that Government wants to level up. But crucially, both reports also point out that how<\/em> that investment is made matters.\r\n\r\nNeighbourhood priorities, and opportunities, can\u2019t easily be spotted from Whitehall. And we really don\u2019t need another well-intentioned but ultimately ineffective attempt at regeneration.\r\n\r\nAs Onward\u2019s analysis shows, there are some key lessons that \u201cmake or break\u201d regeneration, which the Government\u2019s levelling up approach would do well to take into account:\r\n\r\n\u00a0\r\n
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