💭 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

Tech as social infrastructure. Delighted to have @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social writing for us. She challenges the orthodoxy that social media platforms are bad for community power. (Though I'm sure @dmk1793.bsky.social would point out that there are fewer algorithms involved in these examples.)

New essay for the @powertochange.org.uk 10th anniversary. The digital society has been around for decades, but digital social policy is still non-existent. Tech policy can't just pick corporate winners, it should also invest in communities and places www.powertochange.org.uk/evidence-and...

Tech as social infrastructure. Delighted to have @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social writing for us. She challenges the orthodoxy that social media platforms are bad for community power. (Though I'm sure @dmk1793.bsky.social would point out that there are fewer algorithms involved in these examples.)

The publication was created with @uclpolicylab.bsky.social and @powertochange.org.uk to bring together voices from our campaign alongside leading Labour politicians and thinkers. 👉 Read Kirsty McNeil’s essay and the full collection: www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/s... 🧵 2/2 #CommunityPoweredPolitics

Our new essay collection explores Labour’s relationship to the politics of community. In her essay, MP @kirstymcneill.bsky.social writes: “long-term, relational, power-building work should be our guide as we navigate the 2nd year of this still-young Labour government.” 🧵 1/2

Pleased to see @sundersays.bsky.social highlight the new @uclpolicylab.bsky.social essay collection on Labour and communitarianism in his response to the anonymous screed being circulated of late amongst Labour MPs

I'm a late addition to this event. Looking forward to it, alongside stellar fellow panellists.

Our new @powertochange.org.uk research briefing - Returning Power to the People - was published last week. Three charts which should shape debates on Pride in Place this Labour conference.

Award-winning pies, drinks and community-led growth. Join us later at the community-owned Baltic Creative.

I was delighted to contribute to this excellent @uclpolicylab.bsky.social & @powertochange.org.uk essay collection on “Labour and the communitarian tradition”, alongside @ewallis.bsky.social, @mds49.bsky.social, @caitprowle.bsky.social, @kirstymcneill.bsky.social & @andyburnham.bsky.social

On the way up to Labour conference for @powertochange.org.uk. The following pieces from @anooshc.bsky.social and @morganj0nes.bsky.social on govt's Pride in Place announcements - lost a bit among digital ID debates - set the context from our perspective.

I’ve spent a lot of time writing and thinking about the ways the government is fucking it. Nice to take a break and write about something going sincerely right: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

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...

💡 In new polling, we found people are more positive about the state of their local area, which they describe as ‘good and ‘safe’ than the country overall, where one word cuts through the rest - 'broken'.

Welcome news! The government is investing “Pride in Place” funding in 330+ deprived communities. Our research published today shows why this matters. Read the full report on why community power is essential to tackling discontent, restoring trust, and driving national renewal buff.ly/MIQNu9O

With today's announcement on Pride in Place, worth noting that policies such as this (it's a rebranding & expansion of Plan for Neighbourhoods) are popular but haven't cut through. Same goes for community right to buy, and community energy. w/ @luketryl.bsky.social @moreincommonuk.bsky.social

Really pleased with today's announcement. Marks a step-change in support for high street renewal. Targeted at hyper-local level with (hopefully) genuine community control. @powertochange.org.uk called for lots if this in May.

@lucysym.bsky.social is at @libdems.org.uk conference, reporting talk of the English Devo & Community Empowerment Bill, which we’ve been calling to be strengthened so it lives up to its name. We know local decline matters when people head to the polls. Read more in 'Shuttered Front': buff.ly/8JgsEbu

Why we @powertochange.org.uk are bursting the conference bubble, by @lucysym.bsky.social. Meet the community business leaders joining us in Liverpool this year. www.powertochange.org.uk/evidence-and...

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 know this isn't really the point of today's discourse, but does anyone have a PDF of Peter Kyle's doctorate in community development?

🗣️On Tues @nickplumb.bsky.social gave evidence to Business & Trade Committee on the future of the high street. Asked by @liambyrnemp.bsky.social if it’s in terminal decline, he said no, but the retail-only model is over. We need vibrant, mixed-use spaces with community at the heart, like Sparks.

Charts like the one below are a stark reminder of the huge representation and power gap that exists in this country. The think tank sector is marginally better on representation when it comes to schooling, but we still have a long way to go.

Today I gave evidence to the Devo and Community Empowerment Bill Committee, and made the case that this legislation should just be the start on community empowerment.

I spoke to the @bigissue.com about how the campaign to save the independent cafes on Hampstead Heath is emblematic of the fight against identikit places up and down the country.

I spoke to the @bigissue.com about how the campaign to save the independent cafes on Hampstead Heath is emblematic of the fight against identikit places up and down the country.

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.

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.

Steve Reed to MHCLG could be viewed in the context of @morganj0nes.bsky.social recent piece on community empowerment.

In debate on new Community Right to Buy laws, great to see Labour MP @simonforstroud.bsky.social call for communities to be given chance to buy environmental assets, alongside social & economic ones - a point also made by Lib Dem MP @vikkislademp.bsky.social hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2025... 1/

Just today, I heard of a live example of a community-led group tackling anti-politics of both a left and right flavour in their neighbourhood. They cut through lots of online noise by cracking on and running events in their town - to bring people together IRL, where lots of the noise fades away.

Labour has been quietly going quite hard on "community empowerment" – possibly because it's one of the few halfway coherent theories knocking around the party about how to tackle anti-politics. I've spoken to a lot of people about it for @newstatesman.com: www.newstatesman.com/comment/2025...

We're at the Museum of Broken Dreams in Westminster with @right-here.org, seeing what could be achieved if only communities were trusted. Take a look at the stories of community-led projects that could have transformed Britain 👉 arcg.is/0K9SvG1 @lucysym.bsky.social

I thought this too. How does this compare to, say, the most recent Conservative and Labour Party leadership elections?

I think Sean is right that Brexit was the key driver of departure from Blue Labour's previously more radical political economy. This contradiction is notable.

Great piece which I think should be read alongside James Kanagasooriam's piece on agency. Both come at things from a very different perspective, but reach similar conclusions. Alienation and a lack of agency are damaging the body politic. But also changing the way people are wired.

The power of an active state that works with communities. When Dawn Butler asked, not one person (including regular gambler, Gambler A) designed a betting shop into their ideal high street. Dawn proposes a change to the law to make it more difficult for betting shops to turn up on your local HS.

Nice to be alongside some great folk and organisations in here...

This is good - asking "how do we enable each community to lead and deliver the change it needs?" which is very different to "how do we do what we judge to be good for the community around us?"

We @powertochange.org.uk agree. We argued, in Closing the Void, for a 'democratic trust fund' to be established through a small uplift on the tax paid by big tech.

"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...

ICYMI, I set out some thoughts on Your Party and Reform's political strategy. I look at the declining social base of political parties, and the ways challenger parties are seeking to respond to this.

New piece on Your Party, and why traditional parties of government are playing catch up on new power beyondlocalism.substack.com/p/what-corby...

Some really useful and thought-provoking pieces on the new party - 'Your Party' as an interim title - launched by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. First up, this from Nick Plumb @nickplumb.bsky.social of Power To Change substack.com/@beyondlocal... 🧵1/6

Can Sultana and Corbyn's party cohere into something meaningful, and what does the party's slightly chaotic formation tell us about new power?

Our brand-new quarterly Pulse Survey keeps our finger on the pulse – what are community businesses’ prospects, priorities & views on govt right now & over time? We've just sent the second round out today. Do respond if you see it in your inbox, or catch up on what we learnt here 👇 🧵

@nickplumb.bsky.social @jesscraig.bsky.social have been in #Newcastle visiting community businesses providing creative spaces & somewhere to meet & mix. All this helps build more trusting, vibrant & cohesive places. Chilli Studios 👉 buff.ly/N7Ansm3 @starandshadow.bsky.social 👉 buff.ly/nQN5MBw

I've written up a new piece, on new power and the new left party. Featuring @compassoffice.bsky.social @graceblakeley.substack.com and others. I argue that Your Party and Reform both better understand new power than the traditional parties of govt, and the latter are playing catch up.

🧵 Reflections on a day visiting two community businesses in Newcastle. TLDR, it’s connection and a ‘place to be’ that matters. Now more than ever, given the range of factors driving us apart.