Andy Burnham clearly understands the role pubs, shops and social clubs have in our shared life – he’s based his campaign out of one. But while high business rates are part of the declining picture of Britain’s high streets, they're by no means the full picture. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

#HighStreets can be more than just retail - they can be places for connection, culture & community power. Our new Civic High Street briefing sets out 5 practical steps to unlock this vision. Read 👉 https://bit.ly/4o0eekg ✍️ @jesscraig.bsky.social#HighStreets

🧵 1/4 High streets are more than shops. They’re civic spaces for culture, learning and connection. 🚨 Today, we publish ‘The high street playbook’, sharing lessons from our Community-Led High Street Innovators programme, and why they matter now. Quick read: buff.ly/FEQKij1 #HighStreets

ICYMI: Govt announced £300m+ to fund High Street Innovation Partnerships & last week @jesscraig.bsky.social dug into learning from our Community Led High Street Innovators project - showing how communities can deliver long-term, meaningful regeneration of the high street👇 https://bit.ly/4s1a7Vb

Over the weekend the government announced £301m(!) for High Streets Innovation Partnerships to help communities 'reimagine and revive struggling high streets and make them fit for the future': www.gov.uk/government/n...

A longing for ‘how things used to be’ threatens progress to reimagining the high street. But creative heritage-led regeneration ushers in a brighter future. @jesscraig.bsky.social shares reflections fresh from a visit to the community-run, historic Dewsbury Arcade: https://bit.ly/40I0HmB

I've written something about nostalgia and the high street, and how heritage-led regeneration can bridge the gap between where places have been and where we're going. Bonus photo of me and colleagues in awe at those beams. www.powertochange.org.uk/evidence-and...

Lovely day in Dewsbury yesterday with @powertochange.org.uk and our community-led high street innovator cohort visiting Dewsbury Arcade. This summer it reopens to the public for the first time in a decade, now council owned and community run . Look at those beams!

The Business and Trade committee published its report on the Small Business Strategy yesterday. V pleased to see it highlight the role of community business in high street regeneration and adopt @powertochange.org.uk recommendation for funding to support the introduction of Community Right to Buy

Had a great day visiting the fantastic @nudgecommunity.bsky.social with civil servants and @powertochange.org.uk to discuss all things community ownership and high street regeneration. Come for a look around… (🧵)

Also absolutely *right* that Epstein's victims were acknowledged when all the political intrigue over Mandelson/the threat to the PM's position seems to have slightly lost sight of them. I can't say it better than this: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Very likely the PM's speech today will be remembered more for his apology on Mandelson but good nonetheless to hear Pride in Place is being extended to 40 more places.

Have seen this take a lot and really disagree. Gov’t could invest in anchor institutions for towns; build FE colleges in town centres; set up childcare co-ops; retrofit iconic buildings and make them into community gyms, etc. We are more than individual consumers - that’s the point of politics!

There's lots of commentary going around on the state of the high street and what Labour can do to fix it. With the welcome news that the government plans to publish a high streets strategy later in the year, I've written a deeper dive on what that strategy should be about. 🧵https://bit.ly/4q8NH3E

🏬 Important coverage today on the state of Britain’s high streets. @drjennings.bsky.social's research finds people who feel their local area has declined are more pessimistic about the future + Reform supporters are most likely to report decline: buff.ly/UcFpKkQ @michaelgoodier.bsky.social

Good, important work by @drjennings.bsky.social and co. Reading the piece, striking how often the debate gets confused between the future of retail and the future of our high streets. Government's High Street Strategy, announced yesterday, seems to be focused on the former, not the latter.

@jesscraig.bsky.social explores for @labourlist.bsky.social how Community Investment Zones could transform the future of our high streets—bring life back to local economies, support small businesses & create vibrant, community-led spaces: bit.ly/48EGocX

Last night we launched our essay collection at @britishacademy.bsky.social with a bumper panel reflecting ideas from @jamestplunkett.bsky.social describing rewilding as a metaphor for civic renewal to @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social imagining how future data centres could be owned by communities.

1/4 Today we've published our new essay collection. 'From the ground up: Community business & Britain’s next decade' marks a decade of progress for community business and Power to Change and presents bold ideas for a brighter, more connected future: buff.ly/XiNc26W

The Cloudflare outage currently prevents me from sharing the wonderful new @powertochange.org.uk essay collection we're launching today. BUT if you'd like to get your hands on an old fashioned paper copy come along to our launch event tonight Info/sign up: powertochange.typeform.com/to/L2W7DYk9?...

I tried to cover a lot of ground here. A few points developing the argument, regarding current government's "Pride in Place" etc: basically I like this stuff, but worry a bit about lack of realism about what they might achieve in isolation.

On Tuesday we launch 'From the ground up: Community business and Britain's next decade' - an essay collection to celebrate 10 yrs of @powertochange.org.uk and look ahead into the future of our communities. Delighted we'll be joined by this excellent panel of guests to share their 2035 vision 👇

Wrote something for @powertochange.org.uk about the fact that government policy must include a new category - digital social policy - to address the social impacts of technologies. Tech policy has to be more than cutting-edge innovation and growth www.powertochange.org.uk/evidence-and...

💭 We're reflecting on a busy #LabourConference 2025, where the power of community, and the importance of growth that everyone can see and feel, were central themes. Here are our 5 key highlights: #Lab25

@powertochange.org.uk last event of Labour conference getting underway! Our community business reception is all about how communities create growth you can see, feel and that everyone benefits from.

@nickplumb.bsky.social (in jazzy headphones) kicks off a Reclaiming Our Regional Economies panel on resisting the rise of the far right with a striking stat that £2.9bn of assets sold by councils in last two years, leading to loss of vital shared spaces for connection.

Nice to hear @georgiagould.bsky.social speaking on the need for culture change at the centre to enable communities to drive change in their local areas. She says govt can decide the outcomes it wants to see but needs to be flexible on the ‘how’ so places can deliver on the way that works for them.

@kirstymcneill.bsky.social - bangs the drum for Pride in Place announcements, arguing that they are a radical new form of statecraft. And sets out a really clear view of how difficult working relationally is, but also how rewarding and meaningful it is.

Packed room for our first conference event with @joshsimonsmp.bsky.social, @kirstymcneill.bsky.social, @morganj0nes.bsky.social, Andy Jackson @right-here.org and Frances Foley @compassoffice.bsky.social - discussing communitarianism (Beyond Blue Labour)

Felt right to start Labour conference yesterday with an event with Merseyside community leaders, @coopparty.party.coop and Birkenhead MP (and new MHCLG minister) @allymcgovern.bsky.social talking about how community business drives pride in place, connection and an economy that works for all.

I’ve been reading through govt’s new pride in place strategy. I like this sentiment a lot, but making sure the Pride in Place programme delivers outcomes that are genuinely community led will be its real test.

1/4 | Our @powertochange.org.uk response to today's announcement. Today’s Pride in Place announcement should be applauded. In targeting investment at the hyper-local level, the government has shown that it understands...

Happy conference season to those who participate. I'm heading to Labour conference this weekend and Conservative conference next weekend - please get in touch if you'd like to get coffee (I'll be needing lots of it)

I'll be at Labour conference in a couple of weeks with @lucysym.bsky.social @jesscraig.bsky.social and Tim. And we're doing things a bit differently. We have not one, not two, but 7 community business leaders joining us - to help burst the conference bubble.

MPs are back in Westminster today and so are @right-here.org - launching their Museum of Broken Dreams, charting some of the many ambitious community projects that have been stymied by a lack of support, investment, trust that communities can deliver what their places need.

📝 ‪@jesscraig.bsky.social from @powertochange.org.uk shares how government and combined authorities can unlock inclusive growth by backing the social economy. A must-read for policy makers and changemakers. 👇 ow.ly/v1bf50WAAtL

"Kindred isn’t radical. It costs far more to exclude people than to include them; far more to drip-feed poverty than to fund potential." Properly inspiring piece from Erika Rushton of @kindredlcr.bsky.social for @powertochange.org.uk 10 year collection. www.powertochange.org.uk/evidence-and...

‘“How do we roll that out to every community.” This is precisely the wrong instinct. We must shift to a new question: how do we enable each community to lead and deliver the change it needs?’

A fascinating essay from the unique vantage point of Vidhya Alakeson, Deputy Chief of Staff to the PM and former CEO of @powertochange.org.uk for our 10 year anniversary essay collection.

This is great, and digs into all the nuances of the relationship between community space and populism. Yes, declining social infrastructure is linked to rising support for right-wing populism parties (as @powertochange.org.uk and others have shown). BUT...

Agree, the diagnosis is broadly right. The trick is how to achieve a combination of (a) quick material improvements (e.g. to the public realm) that people notice and associate with politics listening and making a difference. But at the same time…. 1/n

Seven years ago the community in Chelmsley Wood said if someone's going to make money in our neighbourhood running a chippy, why not us? Great to join @richardparkerwm.bsky.social and the Co-op Party for a community-powered chippy at the lovely Three Trees Community Centre in sunny Solihull.

💬 Today, the Chancellor unveiled her highly anticipated spending review. While we welcome the investment in local growth and regeneration through the expansion of the Plan for Neighbourhoods, there is a missed opportunity to transform our high streets and bring empty community spaces to life again.

New funding for up to 350 communities (for cohesion, regeneration and public realm improvements) and Growth Mission Funding sound promising in enabling communities to drive local economic and social renewal but...

The Chancellor's rhetoric on pride in place, community assets and high streets was correct - these things are important, particularly at the moment when face to face is more important than ever so we can see ourselves in one another. There are announcements in that vein, but little detail so far...

Until I'm unbanned (low iron not misbehaviour) I'm on the blood donation bench, but really encourage others to donate! You get biscuits and social clout - what's not to like? Lots of appts in London going - take on the fun/nightmare of navigating your way out of westfield in a post-donation haze!!

I've been thinking about bottom-up growth and the need for economic strategy to produce visible, tangible change that people can see and feel in their lives, in the context of the coming industrial strategy

Lots of new stuff from @powertochange.org.uk on inclusive growth and the social economy today! We've brought together ten lessons for combined authorities on how to promote sustainable local growth via the social economy, inspired by our work in three regions and new conversations with CA staff.

8/8 TLDR: the state of the high street matters, and taking it seriously isn’t just good policy for the government, it’s good politics. Full briefing here (thanks to excellent work by my colleagues @jesscraig.bsky.social, @lucysym.bsky.social and Linda Hien) 👇

2/8 At the 2024 general election, Reform UK came 2nd in 24% of these seats—significantly higher than in the rest of England (14%). This reinforces the thesis of @trfetzer.com et al. that local decline is significantly associated with the rise of support for right-wing populist parties.