Author: Pippa Kelly The Guardian

As I’ve grown older, and particularly since becoming a parent 16 years ago, I’ve been struck by the UK’s segregation of the generations. Though we no longer expect children to be seen, not heard, we do tend to keep them very separate from adults.

Now, it seems, the Germans have a thing or two to teach us about intergenerational living. They have created centres where older people and children mix, to the advantage of both. These multigenerational houses are, as the UK’s Institute for Public Policy (IPPR) says, “recreating some of the extended family ties that people just don’t have as much anymore”.

The mothers’ centre in Salzgitter provided the first German role model in 2006. The idea, pioneered by the then family minister was to bring together under one roof, groups that had previously operated in isolation from each other – childcare groups, youth centres, mothers’ clubs, advice centres and communities for older people.

These multi-tasking houses were designed to offer an alternative for older people, who often feel lonely, and for young families who need support but have no grandparents living nearby.

Here in the UK we are regularly presented with headlines warning us of our “epidemic of loneliness” or telling us that “loneliness is killing us”. Only recently an American report revealed that lonely older people are nearly twice as likely to die prematurely as those without feelings of isolation.

In Germany, the 2006 Salzgitter model was followed, in 2012, by second stage multi-generation houses, with funding for 450 centres. The financial support was part of the German government’s demography strategy, under which nearly all administrative districts have their own such houses.

Compare this with last year’s depressing report from the House of Lords which found that the UK was “woefully unprepared” for the social and economic challenges presented by its ageing population.

“Our society is in denial of the inevitability of ageing,” Baroness Sally Greengross, chief executive of the International Longevity Centre UK, said when the report was published. “We have put off difficult decisions for far too long”.

Germany’s example seems a good one to follow. Its public living rooms are regarded as important new concepts in a modern welfare state where conventional institutional help is combined with a more actively engaged society.

They provide more than this though. As Eckart von Hirschhausen, author, moderator and patron of the multi-generation house in Berlin’s Zehlendorf district, says: “People are rarely happy on their own. Which is why multi-generation houses are the model for the future: learning from one another, feeling needed, sharing joy. A real recipe for happiness!”

Here in the UK the IPPR has called for universal community centres in which activities for different age groups would take place separately but under one roof.

Clare McNeil, senior research fellow at the IPPR says that the idea shouldn’t be too costly (the German government subsidises each of its homes by about £33,000 a year) and could be achieved by bringing existing services together in Sure Start centres or community halls.

The whole thing seems eminently sensible, with many inbuilt mutual benefits. Generations mix, the elderly provide a helping hand with childcare services even as the children themselves enhance older people’s lives.

And they certainly do. Ten-year-old Annie Donaghy spoke at a fundraiser in York about her grandmother who developed Alzheimer’s at 58.

In front of an audience of 800 Annie described how her grandmother still looks the same, still dances to the radio, ice-skates backwards and lets her watch TV programmes no matter “how dreadful” they are.

Her description is a pithy exposition of how to regard someone with dementia – seeing the individual first, not just the condition, recognising what she can do, not what she can’t, and helping when necessary. In Annie’s words, “Nana forgets, so I remember.”

It’s a slogan of which any advertising agency would be proud and sums up what youngsters, with their fresh, unselfconscious, non-judgemental take on life have to offer adults, particularly elderly people and those with dementia.

There’s definitely a time and a place for children, but perhaps we should start mixing it a bit more, follow Germany’s lead and broaden our thinking about when and where that is. As Annie says, “Grown-ups don’t always understand the important stuff.”

This is an edited version of a post that originally appeared on Pippa Kelly’s blog. Kelly writes extensively on care issues affecting older people. She tweets at @piponthecommons.

Community owned projects are helping increase the number of affordable homes in the Highlands. Helmsdale & District Development Trust (HDDT) is spearheading a new community led housing development having built four new homes in the Highland village of Helmsdale, backed by £110,000 of Scottish Government investment. Local people have also been heavily involved in shaping plans within the development, as well as the overall priorities the Trust has for the area.

During her visit to Helmsdale, the Housing Minister Margaret Burgess met with one of the new tenants Mrs Amy Withey at the Rockview Place project. Mrs Burgess said “Housing is at the heart of this Government’s ambition to create a fairer and more prosperous country. In the Highlands, Helmsdale and District Development Trust is an excellent example of housing development led by the community for the community. It is great to see not just homes being built, but a wider community being invigorated too.

“As we’ve seen with Helmsdale who are an inspiration to other communities the funding from

Scottish Government has enabled access to affordable housing that they have been desperately in

need of and at the same time it has created economic and employment benefits for local companies and contractors.”

“We are committed to the provision of affordable housing across Scotland – working flexibly in partnership, and using innovative approaches to maximise investment.”

Ruth Whittaker, Chairperson of HDDT, commented: “We are delighted and honoured to welcome Mrs Burgess here today, to perform the official opening ceremony of the Helmsdale & District Community Owned Housing Project. Although the homes were actually completed in perfect time for local families to move in just before Christmas 2014, we see the Minister’s visit as an acknowledgement of this community’s tenacity in addressing its housing needs.

“It is significant that our success with this innovative project is now inspiring similar community groups to emulate our pioneering delivery model.”

Calum Macaulay, Chief Executive at Albyn Housing Society, said: “By supporting Helmsdale and District Development Trust with this ambitious and rewarding project, the Trust has been able to deliver four much needed quality new homes for Helmsdale. This innovative scheme not only addresses local housing need, it will provide an effective and sustainable income stream that will support and sustain community initiatives for many years to come. Today’s handover marks an achievement the people of Helmsdale can be justly proud of, and we wish it every success. We also sincerely hope it will inspire other groups to pursue similar community-led projects throughout the Highlands and beyond.”

Pete Guthrie, Head of Strengthening Communities for HIE in Caithness and Sutherland, commented: “Helmsdale and District Development Trust is an excellent example of what ambitious communities can achieve when working together with HIE’s support.  For several years HIE has provided a wide ranging programme of assistance to the community of Helmsdale, including a full time Local Development Officer.”

Graeme Galloway, Relationship Manager, Triodos Bank NV, commented: “Triodos is delighted to have provided loan finance to Helmsdale & District Development Trust to allow the development of much needed affordable housing within the local area. This project included the support of many organisations and our loan was coupled with grants, enterprise funds and public money. The Bank’s involvement with the client was from an early stage and we worked closely together to allow this scheme to work. Triodos Bank is always interested in working with small community groups to assist with housing projects, particularly where there is a proven need for modern, affordable housing in the locality.”

A consortium, made up of the Carnegie UK Trust, Scotland’s Towns Partnership, the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES), and the University of Stirling, has unveiled the UK’s first online tool to help understand the facts, figures and interrelationships that underpin all Scotland’s towns and cities.

The launch, which took place last week in Musselburgh saw Margaret Burgess, Minister for Housing and Welfare, ’switch-on’ the new online tool.

Understanding Scottish Places (USP) answers a pressing need for better quality information to inform important decisions about how communities are organised and funded. It brings together 36,000 different pieces of data about places and people in Scotland into one online, visual, searchable database.

From today, anyone can access a full suite of information about any of 479 Scottish communities digitally – and compare that information with any other place across the country.

The launch of the new tool comes on the back of an Ipsos MORI survey carried out in March by the Carnegie UK Trust, leaders of the USP consortium, which encouragingly revealed that the majority (54%) of Scots value the services available in their local communities. Many of those questioned recognised the way in which places in Scotland are inter-related and rely on each other for different facilities and services, something that is explored further in USP. Almost 40% revealed that they travel to access the services they require.

Margaret Burgess, Minister for Housing and Welfare said: “We believe that USP is a powerful asset for people working across the country to design better strategies for their communities – whether they are in council, town partnerships or BIDs, traders associations, businesses or community groups.

“USP is a great resource, ideally positioned to help local people see how their area is working for them and be inspired to get involved in revitalising their towns. It is just one of a suite of measures that the Scottish Government is backing to help to deliver the Town Centre Action Plan. We hope that this platform will encourage communities to look across to other towns with similar characteristics and start to share more of their success stories.”

Martyn Evans, Chief Executive of the Carnegie UK Trust, joined Margaret Burgess for today’s switch-on, and said: “USP is a valuable tool for all of those invested in making our town’s better places to live. It recognises that different places have different needs, and require different services and resources. It explores the way in which each place has a unique identity and this is how we need to think about places when we design services, invest, and innovate. For the first time, the platform looks at the levels of interdependency between communities, to give us a more sophisticated and constructive picture of how our places work together.

“In the coming months, we will be consulting further across the whole country, to see what needs to be added to this platform to deepen that understanding and grow the sophistication of the data we can offer.”

The platform has been designed and built by the Carnegie UK Trust, Scotland’s Towns Partnership, the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES), and the University of Stirling. It is available now at www.usp.scot. Co-funded by Carnegie UK and the Scottish Government, it is a practical output of the Scottish Government’s Town Centre Action Plan initiative.

The Scottish Government are supporting a pilot grants scheme to ameliorate the impacts of austerity and welfare reform within some of Scotland’s most disadvantaged communities. The scheme is being coordinated jointly by Development Trusts Association Scotland and Scottish Community Alliance.

This pilot scheme aims to demonstrate that:

•             communities know best what they need

•             when communities have control of a resource, better outcomes are achieved than if that resource is controlled from the top

DTAS/SCA have selected a number of organisations who match the following criteria, which have been agreed with the Scottish Government.

Selected organisations are:

•             Community Anchors

•             In receipt of People and Communities Fund (including Strengthening Communities) grants

•             In the most deprived areas, according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation

•             With a reasonable geographical spread 

Criteria for the programme:

•             the funding must be used for welfare reform mitigation

•             there is an expectation that it will be disbursed to, or provide support for, grassroots organisations in your particular area .

•             the money cannot fund individuals

•             anchor organisations will be expected to create their own mechanism for spending the grant, as they will know the local situation best. This could, for example, take the form of a small grants programme, a local challenge fund, or a shared participatory budgeting exercise, although not restricted to these models

•             anchor organisations will need to create appropriate light touch evaluation/impact measurement for the grant

•             the recipients are expected to provide a brief report to DTAS/SCA during the funding period, explaining how they spent the money and what difference they believe the funds have made to their community

•             funding may not be used for staffing or core running costs for the anchor organisation

•             funding may not be used for party political activities or support

•             funding must be spent by the end of December 2015

Author: CHEX

Little change in how influential community-led health organisations feel they are with agencies

In 2012, CHEX published Healthy Influences, which explored how influential Scottish community-led health organisations felt they were on policy and strategic decision making by public agencies. The research found that community-led health organisations contributed to local and national planning structures in a range of different ways, from responding to consultations to having representation within planning structures. However, the research also highlighted a range of barriers to involvement and influence, including limited organisational capacity, a lack of information and inaccessible buildings and documents.

This report highlights where and how collaboration and participation has been successful as well as further exploring seemingly persistent barriers to influence.

Download Healthy Influences 2015

Jos de Blok: The Beginning – Neighborhood Care the Way It Was Meant To Be

In 2006, a few community nurses with a vision started a new concept in the Netherlands:  Buurtzorg, which in English means “Neighborhood Care.”  Prior to this, community care was fragmented and the system of paying for activities by the hour resulted in many different tasks delivered by lower-educated caregivers.  Patients were forced to deal with multiple caregivers doing individual tasks, while higher-educated nurses grew increasingly frustrated, unable to properly carry out their work.

Having been a community nurse and managing director, I saw a need to develop a new model based on old principles of primary health care:  skilled nurses working together in a team of no more than 12, in a neighborhood of 10,000 people, caring for all kinds of patients.  These teams would be responsible for the patients and have the autonomy to deliver the best possible care. This would be an organization without management and with low overhead costs so the money could be spent on the patients and their nurses, and so higher quality could be delivered at a lower cost, all supported by an innovative IT system.

What started as a team of 4 nurses in 2006, has grown to 580 teams of 6,500 nurses in 2013.  Each team created their own network with support from General Practitioners and is supported by a single “back office” of 30 people.  As a non-profit, Buurtzorg has grown to serve 50,000 patients without a single complaint and with revenue of more than € 180 million euro.

External research has shown outcomes from the Buurtzorg model have been consistently better than every other homecare organization.  In 2009, Nivel, the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, found Buurtzorg had the highest satisfaction rates among patients anywhere in the country. In 2010, Ernst & Young found the average costs per client were 40% less than other homecare organizations, indicating a potential national savings of € 2 billion euro per year!

This drew the attention and support of the Prime Minister, the Dutch Health Ministry, patient organizations and others.  Many politicians supported the model as a best practice and used it as an example in reaching agreements.  The greatest honor, though, came from our nurses in 2011 and 2012, when Buurtzorg received the national Employer of the Year Award, as determined by employee surveys.

A consortium of support bodies and government agencies have come together to launch a high profile and ambitious study. This large-scale Social Enterprise Census will take an official count of the entire population of non-profit-distributing organisations that are carrying out some level of trading for the good of Scotland.

The findings will be made widely available to ensure that this type of enterprising activity is better understood and better supported, and its contribution evident to all.

Is your organisation trading for the benefit of others? If you can answer ‘yes’ to all or the majority of the following questions we want to hear from you:

– Does your organisation have social or environmental goals?

– Are you operating independently of the public sector?

– Are you earning some level of income from delivering contracts or selling goods/services?

– Do you aspire to greater financial independence through earned income (not reliant on grants)?

– Do you reinvest your profits and retain assets entirely in pursuit of your social or environmental goals?

You might operate as an enterprising Charity, SCIO, Company (without share capital), CIC, or Society. You might take a recognisable form such as Housing Association, Development Trust, Credit Union, Social Firm, or Co-operative. You may earn income from fees or contracts in a variety of fields – everything from the arts to social care. Whatever the case, we want to know more about your organisation and its work.   

Please take 15-20 minutes to register some basic information and give us your views (it’s best here if the person providing information has a good grasp of the finances in your organisation). You can register your information here.

Any information that you provide will be treated in the strictest confidence by the research team at Social Value Lab and used only for research purposes.  

As a thank you for taking the time to respond you will have the option of entering a FREE PRIZE DRAW to win an iPad Air. In partnership with Run Native (www.runnative.co.uk) and Social Enterprise Networks, we will also be announcing winners of a great selection of weekly prizes to be contributed by some of Scotland’s leading social enterprises. 

THIS STUDY IS BEING SUPPORTED OR GUIDED BY THE FOLLOWING PARTNERS: HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS ENTERPRISE, SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT, BIG LOTTERY FUND SCOTLAND, SCOTTISH ENTERPRISE, NESTA, SOCIAL INVESTMENT SCOTLAND, SOCIAL ENTERPRISE SCOTLAND, SOCIAL FIRMS SCOTLAND, SENSCOT, COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT SCOTLAND, SOCIAL ENTERPRISE ACADEMY, SEUK, GLASGOW CALEDONIAN UNIVERSITY, SCOTTISH URBAN REGENERATION FORUM AND FIRSTPORT.

Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, Aileen McLeod, announced on 2 April 2015 the award of £1.9 million for 26 community-led projects in the 21st round of grants from the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund.

The projects offered grant are:

The Leamy Foundation’s Carbon Sprouts project will establish a community growing space at St Mungo’s Episcopal Church in Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire.  Additional carbon cutting activities include workshops to help the local community reduce food waste and to promote local and seasonal food. £63,649

Guru Nanak Gurdwara’s Sangat Climate Change Initiative will cut the carbon emissions from the Gurdwara through the installation of energy efficient measures including insulation, LED lighting and secondary glazing.  Additional project activities will help households of the Sikh Community in Edinburgh and the surrounding areas to reduce energy use and carbon emissions through home energy advice including multilingual resources. £144,994

Glasgow East Women’s Aid’s Let’s Grow! project will establish a safe, community-led allotment where women and children in the East of Glasgow who have experienced domestic abuse can grow fruit and vegetables.  As well as reducing local carbon emissions through increased production of local food the project will include workshops to help reduce food waste and to encourage consumption of seasonal and local produce. £30,523

Creetown Initiative Ltd’s Reuse Matters project will offer upcycled alternatives to traditional fashion and home goods in Mid-Galloway and the Machars.  In doing this the project will reduce landfill waste and associated carbon emissions.  The project will offer a free collection service using an electric vehicle and weekly workshops where the local community can learn how to upcycle items. £50,424

Too Good to Waste is a project run by Greener Kirkcaldy to build awareness, skills and opportunities for the local community to reduce waste by reducing, reusing and repairing.  The project will carry out programmes of practical events and workshops in the community, backed up by community-based social marketing activities and engagement with other local community groups. £75,337

Awaz – The Voice of the Community’s Swap Shop and Climate Challenge Programme will help the South Asian community residing in the G41 area of Glasgow to reduce carbon emissions through tackling waste and improving energy efficiency.  Monthly project activities include swap shops and a climate challenge programme to increase knowledge of energy efficiency, reducing, reusing and recycling. £52,153

Fyne Homes Ltd’s Energy Action for Tenants: Fyne HEAT project will help their tenants in Bute, Cowal, Mid Argyll and Kintyre to efficiently heat their homes.  Tenants will benefit from energy efficiency advice provided by project staff and volunteers to support them to reduce home energy use, bills, carbon emissions and fuel poverty levels. £83,306

Green Feet is a project run by Food Fruition to help communities in Partick, Hyndland and surrounding areas reduce carbon emissions through growing their own food and reducing both food waste and car journeys.  A new community growing space will be established at Dyce Park and support will be available to aid home growing and to tackle food waste.  Further project activities include a car club and cycle training. £25,608

The St Bryce Kirk Centre in Kirkcaldy will upgrade lighting, insulation and draught-proofing to slash the Centre’s energy consumption and carbon emissions through the Action On Energy project.  The project will also offer a series of activities including household energy audits and fuel efficient driver training to help the local community reduce their own energy consumption and carbon emissions. £57,740

The West Lothian Financial Inclusion Network’s Energy Advice Project will support vulnerable groups and those in fuel poverty to reduce bills, energy usage and carbon emissions.  Project activities include home energy advice visits, seminars and roadshows in locations including Livingston, Bathgate and Armadale. £34,369

Al-Meezan Ltd’s Climate Change Grow and Recycle project will reduce local carbon emissions associated with food miles and waste being landfilled.  A local growing space will be established at the Al-Meezan garden in Glasgow City.  Workshops will be offered to support the community growing their own, reducing food waste, composting and recycling. £54,587

Giffnock Recycling Bike and Food Waste Reduction is a project run by local Community Interest Company Big Green Feetin partnership with Giffnock Business Improvement District.  The project will collect food waste from local shops, restaurants and cafes by cargo bike instead of lorry and transport it to a new anaerobic digester where it will be converted into compost.  The project will also raise community awareness of food waste through Giffnock Business Improvement District events and a marketing programme developed with local shops and restaurants. £54,142

Fyne Futures Ltd will run the Isle of Bute Closed Loop Food Chain project to reduce carbon emissions associated with food miles.  The project will create local community growing space, offer home growing training, a pilot food waste collection service and accredited composting training. £37,066

Heart of Scotstoun Ltd’s A Greener Scotstoun project will offer practical learning opportunities and training to help local residents grow their own produce, eat more healthily, reduce food waste and increase recycling efforts.  A community garden and polytunnel will be established at Heart of Scotstoun Community Centre in Glasgow with food waste from the cafe providing a local source of compost. £73,600

Dr Spence Memorial Hall Committee’s Udny Energy Efficiency project will install energy efficient measures at Udny Green Hall, in Ellon, Aberdeenshire to reduce energy use, costs and carbon emissions.  Further project activities include workshops and home visits to inspire hall users and local households to reduce their own energy use. £150,000

Linktown Community Action Centre’s Philp Hall Energy Challenge project will install energy efficient measures in the Philp Hall Community Centre in Linktown, Kirkcaldy, making the building easier to heat, thus reducing its running costs and carbon emissions.  The project will also offer local householders the chance to save energy in their homes through home energy advice visits, an exhibition and workshops with groups that use the Hall. £58,310

Edinburgh World Heritage’s Green Heritage Project Part III will work with local communities both within and outwith the World Heritage Site in Edinburgh to reduce carbon emissions and create a more resilient and educated community with regards to sustainability.  The project will also include energy efficiency DIY workshops, a sustainable food project in partnership with the National Library of Scotland, the creation of a Green Map with the University of Edinburgh and a new growing space in Huntly House courtyard. £41,638

Lanarkshire’s Community Climate Challenge is a project run by Lanarkshire Sports Club to reduce local carbon emissions associated with sports related activities.  The project will encompass a sports kit and footwear recycling scheme, an eco-friendly bulk laundry system and the promotion of a car share initiative to change people’s travel habits long-term. £89,561

Minority Ethnic Carers of Older People Project (MECOPP) will support informal carers and those with a disability or long-term condition in Edinburgh and the Lothians to adopt a low carbon lifestyle through its Heat of the Moment project.  Project activities include home visits and workshops to improve levels of home energy efficiency and recycling and to reduce food waste.  As well as reducing carbon emissions and raising awareness of climate change the project aims to help tackle fuel poverty. £78,942

Living Active and Going Green is a project run by Andalus to install energy efficient measures at the Andalus building in the West End of Glasgow to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions.  Measures to be installed include roof insulation, LED lighting and double glazed windows.  The project will also offer energy efficiency advice to help local people save energy in the home and will promote use of lower carbon travel to the Andalus building. £98,816

Soulriders Cycling Association Scotland’s community-led Life-Cycle project will promote cycling within the BME community in Greater Glasgow.  The project will help the community to reduce their car usage in favour of cycling or car sharing for short journeys, thereby leading to a reduction in carbon emissions.  Project activities include cycle safety training, maintenance workshops, route planning assistance and a establishment of a bespoke car sharing scheme. £115,647

Cycling Links is a Recyke-a-bike project run by Fallin Community Enterprises in Stirling, Falkirk and Clackmannanshire that will work with schools, businesses and the wider community to help lead a shift away from car journeys to lower carbon cycle travel.  Project activities include cycle training, bike maintenance classes, bike loan, fun community events and support for schools and employers to work towards ‘Cycle Friendly’ status. £149,063

Mull and Iona Sustainable Transport is a project run by Mull and Iona Community Trust to reduce the number of single occupancy car journeys on the island.  The project will establish a lift share system and promote other lower carbon travel options such as a community minibus and cycling, particularly on routes not served by public transport.  The project will also work to increase electric car use on the island by converting a vehicle to showcase and loan. £69,833

Small Steps Big Changes is a youth-led project to help young people throughout Tweeddale in the Scottish Borders live a more low carbon life.  The youth steering group will be supported by Tweeddale Youth Action.  Cycle training and maintenance classes will encourage travel by bike instead of car with bikes previously destined for landfill being reconditioned.  Further project activities include a programme of awareness raising events to promote consumption of lower carbon, local and sustainable food. £66,110

RIG Arts Ltd’s Green Screen Scotland project will reduce landfill waste and be led by eco-committees at three Inverclyde primary schools.  Pupils will learn how to reduce food waste and how other items previously destined for landfill can be upcycled into art and also create an animation information pack about their activities for other schools in Inverclyde. £45,082

Get Green Group is a youth-led project to reduce local carbon emissions and is supported by Lambhill Stables, a community-owned charity and emerging Development Trust, based in North Glasgow.  A community garden and food education activities will promote local, lower carbon food while cycle training and maintenance workshops will encourage a shift towards active travel.  The project also aims to reduce waste through reconditioning bikes destined for landfill and making art and jewellery from salvaged materials. £104,224

Click to see the Citizens Handbook

Why we need more active citizens

The Citizens Handbook is meant to encourage the emergence of more active citizens – people motivated by an interest in public issues, and a desire to make a difference beyond their own private lives. Active citizens are a great untapped resource, and citizenship is a quality to be nurtured.

A way of solving local problems

When people become involved in their neighbourhoods they can become a potent force for dealing with local problems. Through co-ordinated planning, research and action, they can accomplish what individuals working alone could not.

When people decide they are going to be part of the solution, local problems start getting solved. When they actually begin to work with other individuals, schools, associations, businesses, and government service providers, there is no limit to what they can accomplish.

A bridge to strong democracy

When citizens get together at the neighbourhood level, they generate a number of remarkable side effects. One of these is strengthened democracy. In simple terms, democracy means that the people decide. Political scientists describe our system of voting every few years but otherwise leaving everything up to government as weak democracy. In weak democracy, citizens have no role, no real part in decision-making between elections. Experts assume responsibility for deciding how to deal with important public issues.

The great movement of the last decades of the twentieth century has been a drive toward stronger democracy in corporations, institutions and governments. In many cities this has resulted in the formal recognition of neighbourhood groups as a link between people and municipal government, and a venue for citizen participation in decision-making between elections.

A way of rekindling community

Active citizens can help to create a sense of community connected to place. We all live somewhere. As such we share a unique collection of problems and prospects in common with our neighbours. Participation in neighbourhood affairs builds on a recognition of here-we-are-together, and a yearning to recapture something of the tight-knit communities of the past. Neighbourhood groups can act as vehicles for making connections between people, forums for resolving local differences, and a means of looking after one another. Most important, they can create a positive social environment that can become one of the best features of a place.

Author: Kathleen Jamie, London Review of Books

A mile and a half from the small town in Fife where I live lies a loch called Lochmill. Half a mile long, it occupies a natural bowl in the Ochil hills, and is orientated almost exactly east-west. On its north and south banks grow sparse hawthorns tufted with lichen and old stunted oaks. At its western end, where the springs that feed the loch rise, Scots pines and larches dominate. On winter afternoons they stand silhouetted against the sunset.

Because the loch was dammed to form a reservoir to supply the town, and became the property of Scottish Water, it holds more water than nature would dictate, but it doesn’t feel artificial. It has various quite rare aquatic plants: water-starwort and needle spikerush and fan-leaved water crowfoot. Goldeneye and tufted duck arrive in winter, ospreys occasionally hunt here in the summer months. Once and only once I saw an otter playing near the wooden jetty.

Because it’s hidden from the public road, which is itself a single-track byway over the hills, you wouldn’t know the loch existed unless you were looking for it. I can’t recall the first time I came here, but it must have been twenty years ago. Had someone told me about it? Had I been poring over the map? The road from town is steep, gaining six hundred feet in a mile and a half. It follows an old route south from the Firth of Tay over the hills and down into the Howe of Fife. At a sharp bend almost at the hillcrest, a track leads into what looks like a tumbledown farm steading. If you follow that track you find yourself almost at once under the dam. A few yards more and suddenly Lochmill is revealed, shining in its scoop in the hills, an intimate and silent surprise. Three or four rowing boats lie upturned on the shore; local fishermen spend summer afternoons catching trout. From the small car park a track leads through woods to the top of the hill. The views are majestic. The Firth of Tay lies below, and beyond the Carse of Gowrie are the Grampian hills, presently under fresh snow. Westward up Strathearn one can see Ben Vorlich and Stuc a’ Chroin, even Ben More if it’s clear. The view is vast, but Lochmill is contained. I like this contrast, between the loch and the firth way below. The varieties of what water can be.

Twelve years ago, one of the first major acts of the newly devolved Scottish Parliament was the Land Reform Act of 2003, which made provision for a community right to buy scheme. If a landowner wished to sell, the local community would have first refusal. The Act came after some pioneering land buyouts – for example, of two sporting estates in Assynt in Sutherland, and the island of Eigg in the Inner Hebrides – achieved after long and hard struggle, with the money raised largely by public donations. In the wake of those victories, the right to buy scheme stated that if local people organised themselves and voted to take the land in question into community ownership, government money would be made available to help from a new Land Fund. For a decade now, this scheme has been chipping away at the private ownership of Scottish land. Of course private sales of large estates and entire islands still take place and Scotland still has the most inequitable pattern of land ownership in Europe: according to the activist Andy Wightman, 432 people own half the private land in rural Scotland. In January, Wightman claims, the Qatari royal family bought the Cluny estate in Inverness-shire – though he can’t know for sure because the deal involved several layers of agents and trusts and investment companies. The right to buy legislation at least meant that small communities which had suffered under neglectful or high-handed landlordism – or even those whose landlords were benign – could at long last hope to own the land they lived and worked on. But only if the landowner wanted to sell.

Some years ago, with a great digging up of roads and re-laying of pipes, Scottish Water changed the source of my town’s supply. Lochmill quietly became redundant as a reservoir, though the dam and outflow remain in place and are maintained, as is the metal ice-breaker which provides a shallow where minnows shoal. The fishermen still pay their annual rent to Scottish Water, and so does the farmer who uses the summer grazing. The loch remained as it was, quiet, secret, wood-sided.

When Scottish Water intimated in 2007 that it wanted to sell, the town’s community trust recognised the opportunity. It took a certain leap of imagination because buyouts are more usually associated with the huge holdings of private landlords in the Western Highlands and islands, not tiny lochs in Fife being disposed of by a public body like Scottish Water. In the nature of such processes, all would go quiet for months, then there would be a sudden flurry of activity. First, a community has to register an interest, which means that at least 10 per cent of the local electorate has to sign a petition approving the idea. This was easily achieved. Leaflets were printed and delivered, and an information day was held because many people said they had never been to Lochmill; some didn’t even know of its existence. The community trust then set about obtaining the necessary business plans, due diligence tests and surveys. They filled in many forms. When all was in place, a vote was organised and everyone over 18 in our postcode area received a postal voting form. To enable the buyout, 50 per cent of these forms had to be returned, with a majority in favour of the proposal.

As it happened, between our community noting its interest and the actual vote came the independence referendum. This small-town vote felt like an aftershock. Those of us who had voted yes in September felt that this was what we’d been voting for: land reform, accountability, participation, ministers who have some relationship with the people they serve. Those who voted no but who supported the buyout could say that we already had what we wanted: devolved government and land reform. We could do all this and please ourselves and still remain in the UK.

Just as before the referendum, people were tense. Apathy would win. Who could be bothered to post a vote about a place they’d never heard of? Developers would buy it. Some snobby fishing syndicate. In the mild, chill words of the leaflet, ‘it could become private ground with restricted access.’ But I shouldn’t have worried: 95 per cent of those who voted, voted yes. The matter would now go back to the government ministers who would surely smile on it. It was, after all, one of the first buyouts on the east coast, it wouldn’t cost much, and it would get the SNP a few acres closer to its ambition of bringing a million acres into community ownership.

Land reform is again high on the Scottish political agenda. In 2012, the SNP government announced that it was setting up a Land Reform Review Group. Last May it presented its proposals. These included transparency. In Scotland – as the sale of the Cluny estate showed – it’s still not always known who owns what. The ownership of huge tracts of Highland land is obscured by shady offshore accounts and secretive trusts. It was also suggested that government ministers should be empowered to intervene where the scale of land ownership or the conduct of a landlord was blocking sustainable development. Shooting estates should again be subject to business rates, which the Tory government had exempted them from in 1994. The proceeds would be used to swell the Land Fund.

The Duke of Buccleuch made clear his ‘absolute dismay’ at these proposals. His family trust owns 240,000 acres of land, much of it in Scotland, and claimed the SNP reforms would force him to ‘reduce our exposure to land’. The Daily Mail, which had screamed itself silly throughout the referendum campaign, continued in the same tone: the SNP were ‘Tartan Stalinists … harrying the great estates – and their owners – with taxes and forcible land sales’. The Mail’s editor, Paul Dacre, owns a 17,000 acre estate near Ullapool.

We will see if these new proposals make it into law. But something’s shifting. I asked the chair of the community trust if he’d been surprised by the Lochmill vote. He widened his eyes and nodded. Our loch is, so to speak, a drop in the bucket. But it’s our drop, and maybe it will someday be our bucket. Iain Macwhirter, a yes-supporting journalist, wrote recently that, with the referendum, ‘something, somewhere snapped in the Scottish electorate.’ To my mind the sensation is more subtle. It’s like that feeling you have when a ferry casts off and for a long moment you can’t tell whether it’s the boat that’s moving or the pier.

The day after the vote I went with my husband to Lochmill. We felt a new sense of ownership and responsibility. Perhaps this is the way the Duke of Buccleuch feels every day. We wandered down to the loch’s southern bank, still in winter shadow, and finding a narrow deer trail we’d never noticed before, decided to follow it. Suddenly, from the bracken underfoot a woodcock shot up, startling us. Woodcock are uncommon round here. The bird flew off over the water, which we could see shining at the bottom of the slope through the scrubby trees, calm as ever.