{"id":5904,"date":"2018-05-01T12:29:43","date_gmt":"2018-05-01T12:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/?post_type=blog_post&p=5904"},"modified":"2023-08-31T15:36:29","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T14:36:29","slug":"learning-let-go-case-community-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.powertochange.org.uk\/news\/learning-let-go-case-community-control\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning to let go \u2013 the case for community control"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this podcast, Vidhya Alakeson, Chief Executive of Power to Change, the independent trust supporting community businesses in England, explores some of the ways local people have taken local power by running community businesses, and the many benefits that brings.<\/p>\n

Featuring community businesses from Bristol, Luton, Liverpool, London, Leeds, and Wellingborough.<\/p>\n

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Community empowerment as a solution has fallen firmly out of fashion in government, scarred by the emptiness of the Big Society agenda and its arrival on the coat tails of austerity. The community rights legislation, ushered in under the Localism Act 2011, is now rarely mentioned, and the initial drive to push power as far down as possible has stalled.<\/p>\n

That is not to say nothing has changed. Despite the lack of attention, enlightened councils see community empowerment as \u2018best practice\u2019. In Luton, for example, the council had previously struggled with vandalism around public spaces \u2013 costing it time and money. But when it worked with local residents to build a pop-up park as part of the Arches Big Local project, those same residents were quick to address any damage to the asset they had helped bring to life. In the face of vandalism, the community fixed the fence before the Council had even arrived to inspect it.\u00a0[1]<\/a>\u00a0Sadly, this kind of collaboration with communities still doesn\u2019t happen routinely.<\/p>\n

We all have a responsibility to change that. Speaking at the Local Government Association conference last year, the Communities Secretary, Sajid Javid, reflected on lessons from the Grenfell Tower tragedy and called for the voice of communities to be heard:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is these kind of communities we need to be much, much better at supporting. Above all else they must be listened to. They must be heard. It must be an honest and open discussion across all communities. Where consultation isn\u2019t just treated as a legal necessity, but a genuine engagement in which all views \u2013 even ones we don\u2019t like \u2013 are treated as if they could actually be right. Where we value voices, dissenting or otherwise\u201d.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

What the dark example of Grenfell shows is that too often still communities are not even listened to, let alone given any power to make a change. So while we can be proud that real progress has been made to replace the hollow consultation processes of old, we need to go much further if we are to tackle some of the toughest economic and social challenges the country faces.<\/p>\n

But what can communities really do?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Community control can achieve great things. For example, giving communities genuine power can help tackle the decline in local economies. We are all too familiar with the data: inequality between the north and south of the country is growing;[3]<\/a>\u00a0the economic vibrancy of cities is uneven across neighbourhoods; and outlying areas often do not feel the benefits.[4]<\/a>\u00a0In places up and down the country, fortunes have remained bleak since the decline of industry over 30 years ago. The financial crisis, recession, austerity and the slow recovery of wages and household incomes have only served to compound the problem. And the result has been anger and frustration in communities which feel left behind. This was all too evident in the EU referendum. Patterns of voting closely reflected patterns of economic opportunity[5]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Devolution has been presented as part of the solution. But it does not go far enough to ameliorate these trends. The devolution of power from Whitehall and Westminster to nine city regions, and their extensive plans for investment rarely take account of the concerns and needs of ordinary people in towns and villages, or in the more deprived parts of core cities.<\/p>\n

To really start to address the frustrations of those who have lost out, we need to address inequality at the level that it affects people every day. And to do this, we need to drive power downwards to communities.<\/p>\n

There are many examples where communities are taking the lead to solve their economic problems and tackle economic inequality at a local level. In particular, where communities have been able to take ownership of assets they are able to use the scope for revenue generation to confront local economic challenges.<\/p>\n

Bristol Energy Cooperative, for example, at one time the biggest community energy company in the UK, projects that it will contribute \u00a34 million to benefit the communities of Greater Bristol and Somerset over the next 25 years. This is community business at its largest scale, but other assets \u2013 from shops and pubs to libraries and leisure centres \u2013 can provide small surpluses at the same time as providing valuable services and supporting jobs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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