That's why it's encouraging to see that the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods' research has made a clear urgent case for Government to shift funding and decisions about neighbourhoods to those living in them.

When people have the resources & power to shape their own neighbourhoods, magic happens 🌱 🏘️ From youth clubs to music venues, health hubs to repair cafes, affordable housing to urban farms, local groups are transforming spaces — for socially just & ecologically resilient work, life & play.

“[This] announcement makes clear that investment in the public realm and high streets is back as a political priority..." > really good that it is, but will be absolutely key that it can support community-led schemes www.theguardian.com/politics/202....

✨This Friday in Birkenhead ✨ Ahead of Labour Party conf', Make CIC & Future Yard CIC are flipping the conversation on homes and high streets — and you're invited! 🏘️ Join talks with a stellar line-up, and explore incredible community-led venues that show the power of locally-led regeneration 🎶 🎨

🏘️ Join Make CIC & Future Yard CIC for a day of conversation on housing & high streets. This event brings together doers, experts, policymakers & community voices to shape the conversation. 📆 26 Sept, Birkenhead

📈 Staggering new BBC report shows scale of community spaces being lost to pay council debt 🏫🏚️ £2.9bn of public assets have been sold in the last two years, from care homes to sports clubs to nurseries to youth centres to pubs. 1/ 🧵

🚧 The barrier to High Street healthcare is not ambition or resources – it’s a system stuck in neutral. In the latest blog, @mr.place kicks the system into gear 👇 t.co/NgyJY9ymzT #CommunityHealth #PlaceBasedCare @platformplaces.bsky.social

Trying to rent or buy a building to bring your amazing community-focused idea to life? It’s much easier to make progress if you’re familiar with the language of the people who own the buildings, who manage funding pots and who work in your local authority. Browse our list of definitions 🔡

Communities are powering forward on retrofitting buildings 🏗️ But many are held back. Can supporting them be a win-win for investors & built environment professionals too? Read the new piece by Ellie Davies (Footwork), Sara Edmonds (National Retrofit Hub) & Alasdair Ben Dixon (Collective Works).

There are some wonderful pieces still to come, so stay tuned! For now, you can catch up on essays from contributors like @jamestplunkett.bsky.social, Vidhya Alakeson, and @platformplaces.bsky.social co-founder Bex Trevalyan, and more: www.powertochange.org.uk/celebrating-...

It’s official 💚 We've joined forces with @footworktrust.bsky.social, our long-time collaborators! We’ve formally integrated, so we can better facilitate & grow the movement for community-led neighbourhood transformation 🏘️🪄 Read about our ‘civic partnership’ 💍 www.platformplaces.com/news/footwor...

🏙️ Is your community working to renew your high street and take on assets for local benefit? 📝 What policies might be available to help you? Find out at @powertochange.org.uk's online session on August 27th: www.powertochange.org.uk/event/policy...

It’s official 💚 We've joined forces with @footworktrust.bsky.social, our long-time collaborators! We’ve formally integrated, so we can better facilitate & grow the movement for community-led neighbourhood transformation 🏘️🪄 Read about our ‘civic partnership’ 💍 www.platformplaces.com/news/footwor...

Bex at @platformplaces.bsky.social telling the story of Platform Places - from a series of roundtables hosted with @powertochange.org.uk to an independent organisation and growing movement of places forging unlikely partnerships to turn around their town centres.

📍 Peer power in action, supporting each other's local missions 💚 In Coalville C.A.N 's beautiful community hub of makers, creators, educators, art, radio and more, the five pilot Local Property Partnerships gathered for two days. 1/ 🧵

A big step forward for the campaign for communities to own the places and spaces that matter to them ✨🏘️ Well done to all organisations and individuals who have been relentlessly campaigning. Sign @right-here.org's petition to see community powers go further: actionnetwork.org/petitions/co...

🧱 📍How many dream buildings got away? 🗺️ 🤝 How many did you have to map, scope, assess or lose to commercial offers, before securing your community asset? Explore the early highlights, learnings & practical tips from the pilot Local Property Partnerships: www.platformplaces.com/local-proper...

"It started with a question, over Zoom, in lockdown: Who are we not talking to?" ✍️ Read our cofounder Bex's reflections on the #PlatformPlaces cross-sector movement — and how (with @powertochange.org.uk and many others) we're seeing the next 10 years of community-led high streets. #PowertoChange10

In five neighbourhoods – from Darnall Ward to Wandsworth Town – community leaders are seeding & strengthening local property partnerships to unlock multiple spaces for community use & ownership: Explore what’s emerging, with practical tips & insights: www.platformplaces.com/local-proper...

📣 Calling all community organisations: If you want more #CommunityPower, sign our letter to the Prime Minister. Our campaign leader, Sacha Bedding, has written an open letter urging the government to grant more power to local people. ✍️ Will you sign the letter? actionnetwork.org/petitions/co...

🧩🔑 “These aren’t quick wins; it takes time to build trust, credibility and relationships, before anything’s negotiated, signed or sealed.” – Erika Rushton, Kindred LCR Transforming your neighbourhood by acquiring community assets is a long journey of twists and turns... 1/ 🧵

In this essay, the latest in our 10th anniversary collection, @platformplaces.bsky.social co-founder, Bex Trevalyan, explores how grassroots collaboration & imaginative placemaking are breathing life into Britain’s high streets 👉 buff.ly/4gfEioE #PowertoChange10

A week ago already! Thank you to everyone who came 'footworking' into our office last Tuesday, with generous stories, ideas and inspiration for neighbourhood transformation 👣 Read our CEO Naomi Rubbra's reflections: www.linkedin.com/posts/naomi-...

Here’s a brief clip from Marmalade Festival. We’ll be sharing more soon, but for now, we’d love to invite you to further unpack our vision for change with us in a one-hour webinar and Q&A. 🗓️ Thursday 17th July 2025, 12–1pm 📍Online 🎟️ Free, sign up via link in bio

Just off a main street in the Anfield and Everton area of Liverpool, a small team of residents runs the lively Kitty’s Launderette 👚 ☕ Local people and businesses drop by for affordable, high-quality laundry services powered by renewable energy. 1/ 🧵

🪄 With a new name, new CIC, and exciting ambitions for community-led assets, now's your chance to help shape Bedminster Works (one of the five pilot #LocalPropertyPartnerships).

📣 We know community business works to create thriving places. We have seen and evidenced it over the last decade. We also know there is so much more they can do. This year we are reflecting, celebrating, and looking to the future. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSa-... #PowertoChange10

New reflections from @platformplaces.bsky.social‬ on their Local Property Partnerships pilot. Including emerging lessons on securing buildings and building partnerships, and practical advice for community leaders and power-holders to drive locally-led neighbourhood transformation.

What happens when communities start holding power to acquire buildings and transform their places? 🏘️📍 6 months into the #LocalPropertyPartnerships pilot, funded by @tnlcommunityfund.org.uk, we’re excited to share the emerging highlights and learnings from 5 places 🏙️ 1/ 🧵

Social impact agreements are transforming how empty buildings are brought back to life — with developers and community organisations collaborating at the start ✨ In Wandsworth Town, a community-led partnership and local developer ARC LRE Ltd have agreed a 10-year social value lease! 1/ 🧵

📍 Do you have space available for a community organisation? 🗺️ Here are the latest calls from the #PlatformPlaces network! For an intro, please send us a message here or at platformplaces.com/contact #PropertyMatchMaking #CommunityPower #HighStreets #TownCentreProperty

Across the country, communities run local spaces that help us live affordably, sustainably and together 🙌 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 🍲 🎶 1/ 🧵

❓ If your neighbourhood had a shared community hub, what would you want to see inside? We'd love to one day see cities turned into commons, with land and property community owned. Part of this would mean more communal spaces. So… what would you like inside a hypothetical community hub?

Why this matters: Community centres have long stood as pillars of local life, as places where people can meet, mix and connect. But we are losing these spaces at pace and at scale. The impact of this loss is tangible in our everyday lives.

Grant? Loan? Community shares? Here are a few tips to get started on thinking about fundraising for community assets 🔑 Brought to you by our programme lead Madeleine Blyth, with @footworktrust.bsky.social, after a recent #PeopleAndPlace2025 Technical Huddle! www.platformplaces.com/community-as...

Community businesses generate huge economic, not just social, value 💫 @powertochange.org.uk's latest report finds: ✳️ An estimated £1.5 billion contribution to the UK economy ✳️ Social value worth 9x as much Join the discussion on 20 May! 🔗 Webinar link: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

🆕 Where People Meet: How We Celebrate, Sustain and Reimagine Community Centres In a report out today, we make the case for meaningful investment in community centres at the national and local level to dismantle the challenges standing in their way. buff.ly/OFY7FBE 🧵

Are people involved in associational organisations – like community businesses and working men’s clubs – more likely trust democratic institutions? Join @powertochange.org.uk for a discussion of their new report tomorrow ⬇️

People in growing numbers want to acquire assets in their neighbourhoods, filling buildings with amazing ideas to meet local needs 🏘️ Stir to Action's ABCs of Community Assets workshops are designed to inspire a new nation of community asset developers 🏘️

🔸3️⃣ tips for your social impact agreement🔸 Are you an asset owner looking to revive your high street units? 🏘️ Impactful local businesses can help reduce vacancies while meeting your ESG goals ✅

Otley Common is breathing new life into an existing civic building, creating a community-led, climate-positive, cultural hub in the heart of the vibrant town of Otley, Leeds 🏘️ 🌿 ⛪ They've smashed the minimum target, and there's still time to be part of the story, until 20th May ⬇️

Very excited to be launching the new Corporate Bodies podcast … exploring why organisations are so weird … and what we can do to make them better. Listen to the trailer here and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts Launching 1st May 🚀 open.substack.com/pub/corporat...

💡OPEN-SOURCE TEMPLATES🗒️ A new way of working is emerging between asset owners and social-impact occupiers. One that moves us away from the old 'landlord vs. tenant' binary.

For a deeper dive into this research, join our upcoming webinar on 20 May at 12:30pm. This online panel discussion will cover how community businesses can use key figures in the report to make the case for investment. Book your spot 👉 us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

2 days left ⌛ With soaring heating costs & 5 break-ins since January, the incredible creative+community hub St Anne's House in Bristol needs your support! Not just about saving a building, but investing in a space that enables local people to shape their future: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/lovesah

It’s 18 months in the making, but now we’re peeling back the layers of our (re)founding 🧅🌱 Today, we’re launching an in-depth blog post for those who want to learn more about the work we’re doing, where we’re at now & where we’re heading ✨ Alongside an animation that sticks to the most essential

"Stottie power" is rising — to bring Newcastle buildings into community use and ownership 🏘️🥧 Meet Big River Bakery, local social enterprise & lead partner of one of five pilot Local Property Partnerships supported by @tnlcommunityfund.org.uk.

Fantastic news from CIVIC SQUARE. They've purchased the freehold of Neighbourhood Public Square! A milestone for the community of Ladywood, Birmingham for long-term, collective, social & ecological stewardship 🏡🌍 medium.com/neighbourhoo...

🏡 🌳 What would your neighbourhood look like as an ecologically safe & socially just space, for generations to come? It was wonderful to be in Oxford this week for Marmalade Fest', hearing what this Q means to people locally & beyond—including community asset developers in the #MycelialNetwork 🍄

🏢 Bristol peers: This is a very exciting opportunity to be involved in Bedminster Property Partnership 🏙️ www.windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk/community-en... #BedminsterPropertyPartnership #LocalPropertyPartnerships