- New pilot programme seeds ‘Local Property Partnerships’ in neighbourhoods in Bristol, Liverpool City Region, London, Newcastle and Sheffield.
- Funding will empower local community leaders to acquire, activate and steward buildings in high streets and town centres.
- Tried-and-tested approach of community-led retrofit is set to help tackle vacancies, improve social infrastructure and meet local needs.
Thanks to National Lottery players, Platform Places (a national cross-sector collaboration and not-for-profit social enterprise) and its partners will receive almost £2.5 million over three years from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest community funder in the UK.
The funding will be used to enable communities to come together and secure long-term spaces for the activities and services that they need the most.
Rebecca Trevalyan, Co-founder and Co-director at Platform Places, said:
“One in seven high-street shops are empty. Many more are underused or at risk of becoming so. At the same time, it’s often expensive and precarious for local businesses and community organisations to access secure, affordable workspace.
Now more than ever, we need services in our town centres that help address the cost-of-living, social isolation and climate crises – whether arts and music venues, reuse and repair hubs, urban farms, community kitchens, youth and sports clubs, local markets, co-working spaces, or genuinely affordable housing.”
Beginning October 2024, the fund and programme will resource local leaders who are already engaged in this work in five neighbourhoods: Bedminster, Bristol; Byker and surrounding areas, Newcastle; Darnall Ward, Sheffield; Knowsley and St Helens, Liverpool City Region; Wandsworth Town, London.
Each place will work towards shifting multiple buildings into long-term local ownership, using the Local Property Partnership approach – a tried-and-tested process whereby community leaders and local businesses work together with councils, funders and private assets owners to unlock town centre buildings for local needs.
These Partnerships will purchase (or long-lease) and activate buildings, for example through a not-for-profit entity such as a Community Development Trust (CDT).
Mark Robinson (Former Chair of High Street Task Force and Co-founder of asset manager Ellandi – recently acquired by NewRiver) said:
“One of the main blockers to reviving our high streets is the lack of meaningful cross-sector collaboration. That’s why we need to scale up tried-and-tested practical approaches, like Local Property Partnerships. The time is now for empowering our community leaders to drive this change; they hold the key to turning underused buildings into vibrant spaces that serve local needs.”
Existing national programmes being accessed to regenerate buildings and ‘level up’ are typically either capital funds or are predominantly for capital spend. They can be used to acquire, retrofit and refurbish buildings and the public realm – but communities first need to be organised to benefit from and draw down such capital funds.
This pilot programme ensures local people can get prepared, for example with revenue funding for core salaries to do local partnership development, creative ideas testing, business planning and feasibility studies.
The pilot is inspired by pioneers like Hastings Commons, Stour Trust, SAFE Regen, Civic Square, Nudge Community Builders, Makespace Oxford and more. It aims to lay the groundwork for a larger follow-on funding programme, and catalyse England-wide adoption of this approach to unlocking buildings for local benefit – at scale.
The neighbourhoods and local partners so far involved include:
- Darnall Ward, Sheffield: Brightbox, supported by Sheffield City Council, and together with a collective of local organisations, want to change the way high streets, buildings, and land are occupied within under-resourced and overlooked communities.
- Byker and surrounding areas, Newcastle: Big River Bakery, supported by Newcastle City Council and local partners, are working to create a network of interconnected high street spaces for food, arts, start-up businesses.
- Bedminster, Bristol: Bedminster Property Partnership (a group of community organisations and local businesses, supported by Bristol City Council) is setting a new tone for how properties are owned, managed and used on and around East Street.
- Knowsley and St Helens, Liverpool City Region: Kindred LCR and partners are re-imagining buildings into hubs for socially-trading organisations.
- Wandsworth Town, London: Wandsworth Town Property Partnership (a group of community organisers, council officers and asset owners from Wandsworth Town) is working to unlock buildings for impactful ideas and businesses that promote affordability, sustainability, and community cohesion.
This programme is being supported by national partners Architectural Heritage Fund, Power to Change and Social Investment Business.
Architectural Heritage Fund’s (AHF) Chief Executive, Matthew McKeague, said:
“Our towns and high streets need enterprising ways to revitalise buildings, old and new. This new pilot programme is one that will help communities create vibrant local economies through a range of approaches, including learning lessons from the AHF’s own Heritage Development Trust (HDT) programme. We’re really looking forward to sharing the learning between the Local Property Partnerships and the HDTs.”