On the 13th of June, a fine sunny day, 37 folk from the Scottish Borders and beyond gathered in Hawick Rugby Football Clubhouse (generously offered for the event by the aptly named ‘Greens’ Rugby Club) for a day of networking and nattering.  The meeting was co-organised by Transition Scotland Support and the local Transition group ‘A Greener Hawick’ to provide a chance for local community activists to meet up – whether they were from Transition Towns, Development Trusts, or any other groups working to make their communities better places to live now and for the future.

After a rousing introduction from our local hosts, Graham Bell, a long time permaculture activist (amongst many other things) led a workshop on ‘creating your perfect village’, a fun exercise, which allowed people free reign to imagine the kind of very locally based, self-sufficient network of communities that Transition groups are working towards, as a way of tackling climate change and peak oil.  We then spilt into smaller groups for an ‘open space’ session to discuss obstacles to and resources for our community and environmental work.

After a fantastic lunch prepared with mostly local ingredients, we were treated to some very interesting talks.  Pete Ritchie of Whitmuir Organics spoke about the history of farming in Scotland, and the kinds of issues that face communities who want to start re-localising the food system in their areas.  Dr. Lindsay Neil of Selkirk Regeneration Group told us about the community wind farm plans that Selkirk are working on, which, if they come to fruition, may end up making the community £5 million a year….!  One of the questions was whether, after super-insulating all the houses in the community, the next step would be to put on some nice gold plating!  Jane Gray from ‘Let’s Live Local’ in Moffat  told us about her most recent project, an on-line local social network, to get people more involved with what’s happening in the community.  It’s already being used for a wide range of purposed from collecting plastic bottles to make a greenhouse to sourcing wild mushrooms!  After an interesting Q and A session, we moved on to another ‘open space’, looking at ‘What work can we do together?’.  There were several useful conversations including: ‘Can we get together to learn about local food production?’ and ‘how do we share skills across different groups?’.

It was a full day, and judging from the calls for more of the same, an inspiring and energising one.  Transition Scotland Support is co-organising 4 more gatherings across the country, so please do come along to one that’s near to you.  We’re also organising a National Food gathering (co-hosted with One Planet Food and the Soil Association) in October, and a national Transition gathering in December.

Dates and booking for the other regional gatherings:
East Central: Falkland on the 27th June.  Click here to book.
West Central: West Kilbride on the 11th July.  Click here to book.
There will also be gatherings in Laurencekirk and Forres, dates to be confirmed.

We intend to organise future events in areas such as the north and south west, where we currently have fewer contacts.  Please get in touch if you have views on what would be helpful.
Eva Schonveld, eva@transitionscotland.org
0131 657 2555
07756 290 608

Author: Kenneth Roy

This is a little story of how representative democracy works; or rather doesn’t.

After a campaign by parents against Glasgow’s proposed programme of primary and nursery school closures, the city council met on 23rd April to reach a final decision. It had been a long, eye-catching campaign. Some had occupied school buildings; others had chained themselves to railings. To say that feelings ran high on the day of decision would be an under-statement. A vocal placard-carrying group, including babes in arms, gathered outside the city chambers while the councillors talked and voted.

I was not there, but have seen footage of the sad scene; watched it several times. The most striking thing about the protesters – it must be stated frankly – is that they were the unmistakeable voices of the Glasgow working class; there was not a trace of a middle-class accent. Also notable by their absence were the semi-professional agitators who attach themselves to such causes. This was no rent a mob. This seemed to the disinterested observer to be the genuine article.

In the end, all the months of campaigning achieved little. One school was saved. The bulk of the closure programme – 11 primaries and nine nurseries – will go ahead as originally planned. By the end of this month, the doomed schools will shut their doors for the last time.

The reaction to the vote in front of the city chambers was one of barely coherent anger. One mother could scarcely find words to utter to Scottish Television’s cameras. She finally came up with four. ‘The family!’ she cried desperately. ‘The community!’ But the barely coherent may speak volumes. Really she couldn’t have chosen four more resonant words. The family. The community. One supposes that, if any revival is possible in Britain, any clawback from our state of perilous disillusion, it will originate with these neglected concepts. The revival, if it comes, will start local, deeply local. It will have to be born within us and grow, somehow. The Glasgow mother, struggling for composure, managed to articulate the essentials.

But this necessary business of reconstruction, of taking responsibility for what we see and experience around us, can’t be divorced from representative democracy. That is the fluid we use; the oil for the machine which takes decisions, makes policies. Except it is no longer an effective lubricant – as we’ll see at the weekend when the shocking but unsurprising results of the European elections tumble in, possibly signalling an unparallelled crisis for democracy.

In Glasgow that spring day, the Labour councillors who run the show were unmoved by popular protest, just as the rather larger Labour group who run the show nationally were unmoved by the millions who marched against the Iraq invasion. The war happened anyway. The schools are closing anyway. What does it take? ‘Vote for me,’ they say. ‘Trust me.’ That’s representative democracy for you. Sadly, we don’t trust it any more. Trust is a busted flush. As the party of government committed us to war, as the innocents died on the killing fields of Iraq, many of the war’s supporters, impervious to the possibility that they would ever be found out, were fiddling their expenses, each dodgy receipt contributing to the great hypocrisy. Unless we’re careful this hypocrisy will prove to be more than the enemy of representative democracy. It will be the finish of it.

Look at Albert Primary. It is a poor little school in the heart of Glasgow Springburn, where a by-election will take place in the early autumn, perhaps sooner. One of the reasons given for its impending closure is that it is in a state of disrepair. Sure, but whose fault is that? A lick of paint would work wonders. But let’s not bother with the Dulux. Let’s allow Albert Primary to fall slowly apart as a physical entity, yet astonish the world with the quality of its teachers, the creativity of its pupils, the enthusiasm of its parents. Teaching is like theatre. All you need is two boards and a passion. It can work in the dingiest, clapped-out places and, given half a chance, sometimes does. If only representative democracy were functioning properly, it would start from that premise about education and work outwards.

Now then, why is Albert Primary closing this month? Not because it is in a state of disrepair – we can discount that feeble deception. No doubt the powerlessness of the people of Springburn is a factor; any school within a working-class area is fair game, an easy target. The city budget looks bad. That’s undeniable. Money has to be saved somewhere. These are probably the real reasons: the first, lack of clout, would never be admitted by those responsible, but the second, lack of money, should have been intelligently explained in order to facilitate an inclusive debate about resources, choices, priorities.

Instead of such honesty – ‘transparency’ if you prefer the word of the moment – we have had obfuscation. I listened to the official version of events, mouthed by someone whose performance on television was so unimpressive that the suit was not granted the dignity of a caption. I will quote what might loosely be termed the highlights of his statement: ‘Maximise the teaching and learning resources…improve the exam results…individual support around literacy and numeracy…once the results have bedded down…’ What is the man saying? He appears to be claiming that schools with falling rolls, such as Albert Primary, instead of providing a terrific opportunity for smaller classes and more individual teaching, are a liability; that only larger schools, detached from the immediate community, can improve the skills of the children of Springburn. Is he correct in his assertions? I wouldn’t know. He wasn’t challenged on them. His language was so cloudy that it was largely devoid of meaning. It was conference-speak.

What I’ve just related is a mere example of the condition of representative democracy. Twenty schools are closing in Glasgow this month – brutally, in the face of impassioned opposition, and without proper discussion. No one voted for these measures. No manifesto ever included them. ‘Vote for me. Trust me’. It doesn’t work any more, at least in its present discredited form: not as a slogan, nor as a political philosophy, nor even as an operational expedient. The greatest challenge we face is how to reinvent representative democracy before it perishes. It won’t be an easy assignment.

THE board of Scotland’s biggest housing association is set to quit, after a government watchdog accused it of a failure of leadership, The Scotsman can reveal.

Senior officials at Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) are on the verge of stepping down, after the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) questioned the organisation’s management and its strategic direction and purpose.

The regulator, which is answerable to ministers, is conducting an audit of GHA, which is due to be completed at the end of this month. It has already informed the syndicate of banks and building societies that provides GHA with a £725 million loan facility that it is prepared to take the strongest possible action.

Such action could plunge Scotland’s largest social landlord into turmoil and begin a process that could effectively end tenant and independent control of the organisation. GHA has 63,000 tenants and 26,000 factored homeowners.

The watchdog has the power to appoint or remove members from the association’s governing body, appoint a manager to provide leadership to the organisation and demand it produce a remedial plan of improvements. It even has the capacity to order a full inquiry, with a final report made to ministers.

Officials could be removed or suspended, and GHA’s land transferred to another social landlord.

The Scotsman has learned GHA officials believe they are the victims of a “political witch-hunt”, after a breakdown with key stakeholders in Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government.

“They did not play the political game and did not bend the knee enough,” a source close to the bank syndicate said.

The warning of the possibility of statutory intervention was given during a meeting in Glasgow last week between Karen Watt, chief executive of the SHR, and Ian Sillars, of Royal Bank of Scotland and the manager of the GHA funding syndicate.

The source said: “If the purpose of the meeting was to reassure the funders, it had the completely opposite effect.

“In many ways, the regulator has demonstrated either breathtaking naivety or blind arrogance, or both. Any such statutory intervention and its financial implications could, because of the size of GHA and the numbers involved, plunge the entire social housing movement in Scotland into turmoil.”

It is understood that, while the SHR audit will accuse GHA’s board of a “failure of leadership”, it will recognise the continuing and significant improvements made in the quality of services provided to tenants.

As well as statutory intervention, the SHR is also considering whether GHA is able voluntarily to address issues surrounding its stakeholder engagement and strategic leadership. The perceived non-statutory solution would be to “strengthen” the GHA board by co-opting four additional independent directors and to appoint at least one “special manager” to work with the executive team to resolve weaknesses identified by the audit.

The audit – initially planned as a five-day “light-touch” exercise and now in its fifth week – is known to have caused a series of fractious stand-offs between Ms Watt and GHA’s tenant members and heavyweight independent directors.

Both independents and tenant members, including chairwoman Sandra Forsythe, have privately expressed the belief GHA is being penalised and punished for putting the interests of tenants at the heart of decision-and policy-making – instead of “playing the political game”.

The future of GHA has been the focus of much debate. Privately, some in both the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council are said to be concerned about the power it wields and the way in which it is managed.

SHR began its review in May and will publish its findings in the next fortnight.

Under its guidelines on intervention, the SHR makes clear it looks at several key areas before deciding whether to take statutory action. These areas include financial failure; stock quality and investment failure; governance failures leading to and arising from mismanagement and misconduct; and poor service quality.

The guidelines classify intervention as a way of addressing “serious problems” at a social landlord where the body is “either unwilling or unable to deal with them”. They go on: “Sometimes we may need to use statutory powers to protect and support an organisation in tackling disruptive or hostile elements that threaten its stability.”

A spokesman for the SHR said: “I can confirm that our review of GHA’s progress since our inspection in 2007 is ongoing. We aim to publish our findings at the end of June. We will make no further comment until that time.”

A spokeswoman for GHA said: “The audit has given us the opportunity to demonstrate the huge progress we have continued to make in improving services for tenants and factored homeowners since the inspection report in 2007.

“We expect it will reflect the positive feedback we have received from our tenants on the significant improvements we have made.”

Debts, repairs and contract rows – GHA’s controversial six years

MORE than 80,000 local authority properties were transferred from Glasgow City Council to Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) in 2003.

The deal saw the city’s spiralling housing debts of more than £800 million written off, as GHA embarked on a comprehensive programme of demolitions, repairs, and refurbishments.

However, there has been criticism of the organisation’s management structures, with claims that some of the most deprived communities in Scotland have not been given the sweeping improvements they were promised.

The organisation, which employs around 2,000 staff, has had four chief executives in the space of just five years.

Smaller housing groups have condemned what they see GHA’s reticence to break itself up as part of a promised “second stage transfer” process.

In recent years, however, its relationship with the city council has suffered over its “arms-length” City Building organisation failing to secure maintenance contracts for the GHA after the work was put out to tender under EU rules.

Two years ago, Communities Scotland, the precursor of the Scottish Housing Regulator, gave the GHA a C grade, and urged it to foster improved relations with homeowners.

Tenant members form the largest grouping on the GHA board. On a day-to-day basis, GHA is led by a six-strong executive team, led by Taroub Zahran, who has been chief executive for the past two years.

http://communityideascampaign.socialgo.com

Launched on 4 June 2009, the initial phase of the campaign is seeking people’s ideas to: 

• Preserve and grow employment 
• Stimulate activity across the community
• Make it easier for ordinary people to make a difference
• Kick start our construction industry to provide sustainable homes

As you can see from the logo above our motto is simple; no whinging.  Therefore, the campaign will only consider ideas that are positive and think about solutions, not the problems!

But this is just the beginning of this independent citizens’ campaign. In September, with the help of our advisory group we will be producing an action plan – and it won’t only be for government. It will be for individuals, communities, business and other organisations.

To post an idea on an existing one here is what you have to do:

Once you are registered and signed in
– Click on ‘Ideas Tank’ tab
– Click on ‘What’s Your Idea’
– To Submit your idea click on ‘create topic’
– Enter Topic Title, enter your idea in the topic content box, when finished click ‘create topic’

See Herald artice here http://www.senscot.net/view_news.php?viewid=8247

Speech at DTAS Conference 2009
Elwyn James

Good afternoon.  My name is Elwyn and I work for a development trust called Arts Factory.  We are based in the Rhondda Valleys, in South Wales.  First off I’d like to thank Ian and his team for inviting me to speak to you today.  Ian said that he wanted a practitioner to “provide a bit of inspiration” – so no pressure there then! 

Arts Factory is one of Wales’ most enduring development trusts, we have been around since 1990.  I first got involved in 1991 as one of our board of directors.  Then I became Chair of the board.  In 1994 I became an employee of the company, leading on Marketing, and in 2004 I was appointed Chief Executive.  A lot has changed around us since Arts Factory’s birth in 1990 but too much has stayed the same.  For our team it has been a wild ride on a bumpy road.  There have been many casualties along the way, but others have stepped up to take their place.  We have seen a lot, and we have learned a lot.  We have won some and we’ve lost some.  We have had great times and hard times, and we have laughed and cried and cursed together.  I would like to take a few minutes of your time to share some of that journey with you.

I would like to rewind and ask you to imagine the Rhondda in 1990.  It is not long after the miner’s strike and the subsequent colliery closures that had ripped the heart and the hope out of valleys communities.   It is nearly ten years before devolution, Wales is ruled by a Tory Welsh Office represented by a secretary of state who can’t even sing our national anthem.  Margaret Thatcher has proclaimed that there’s no such thing as society – communities are nowhere on the agenda.  The dominant culture is one of despair and of fear of a bleak future.  It manifests itself in all the usual ways – family break up, drug and alcohol dependency, crime and the fear of crime, suicide and teenage pregnancy.  Along with the despair comes the blame.  It was not an easy place to live if you were “different” – different because of your disability,  or your sexuality,  your race, your lifestyle or maybe even the length of your hair.

It is against that back-drop that a small group of people get together in a local pub.  Some of them are people with learning difficulties.  They are all people who were sick and tired of being labelled as somebody’s problems.  They want to be part of the solution but they know that there is no cavalry coming over the hill to the rescue and that they will have to do something for themselves.  They decide to set up a community enterprise doing garden clearances and light building work for vulnerable people in the community.  They approach the local social services department and agree a deal where they would take a group of people out of day care settings in return for a modest service level agreement, which funds the purchase of a small van and enables them to employ a team leader.  Arts Factory is born, albeit under the spectacularly uninspiring name “Vales Community Business”.

Now I would like you to fast forward to the present day.   Arts Factory’s mission hasn’t changed at all.  We are still working to build a stronger,  more enterprising and more inclusive community.  Arts Factory’s values haven’t changed.  We still believe in social justice and in sustainable development, and we haven’t seen them yet!  Our values are best expressed in the statement  “No More Throw-Away People!”  which we stole from Edgar Cahn, the inventor of time-banking, and have used ever since – because it says what we are all about better than we ever could.

What has changed is that Arts Factory is now one of Wales’ best known development trusts.  We are well known in our local communities.  Over the years Arts Factory’s work has touched thousands of people’s lives.  We are well known within the development trust movement,  and by both the Welsh Assembly Government and the UK Government, both of which have showcased our work in various case studies.  We have won a bunch of awards, locally and nationally.

Today Arts Factory manages a portfolio of social enterprises.  Our Graphic Design business has been a real success over the last ten years.  Our Environmental Design Service grew out of our initial garden clearances and has evolved to become a service that supports local communities to transform their public space.  We have an on-line business, Factory Books, which supplies quality used books to customers from all over the world.  We are partners in a joint venture to develop a  social enterprise making improvements to social housing stock, and are developing a business manufacturing biodiesel from waste vegetable oil.  We rent managed workspace to a number of other organisations, some of it in Trerhondda, a historic building that we have transformed from a derelict shell into a thriving community-hub.  Trerhondda hosts an Open Learning Centre run by our local FE college, and advice surgeries run by a wide range of agencies.  It is home to Arts Factory’s youth work programme, to electronic job points, to health and fitness groups and arts and craft classes, and to “Stay and Play” groups for pre-school children and their parents. 

That all sounds great doesn’t it?  Job done – there’s your inspiration!  It is all true.  I wouldn’t lie to you.  But it is just one side of the coin.  It is half a picture.  I will get to the other half, but first let me return to the journey.

Back to 1991 – Lots of people want their gardens cleared.  Very few have money to pay!  But our team is out in the community, visible, doing hard work that people value.  Doing something that improves the quality of someone else’s life and of their own.  Flying a flag and spreading a positive message.  Not everyone has given up.

The message begins to spread and other people begin to get involved.  Not in their hundreds,  more a steady trickle of misfits.  I was one of them.  Someone told me about the work they were doing and asked me if I’d be prepared to do a few hours volunteering.  I turn up expecting to be filling a skip and I’m handed a shoebox full of receipts and told that I’m the new treasurer!  No one gives me a chance to say no.  Others simply see our team at work,  ask what they’re doing and why, and then they join in!  Volunteers bring along a friend.  There is an immediacy about everything.  People go straight from a street corner to laying a brick.  Out of the pub and into someone’s garden – filling skips in the rain, and loving it.  There is no strategy at all!  Just do it, and do it now.  Do it because it needs doing.  Do it because no one else is going to.  Don’t talk, act.  No excuses.

1992 – We are building momentum as more and more people get involved.  We don’t have an office yet or any sort of base.  People take their tools home at night.  We gatecrash other people’s offices to use their telephones – we don’t have one.   We are still meeting in pubs but now we are packing them out.    There is a buzz on.  Some meetings turn into parties.  More people come!  We have about 30 regular volunteers and a bunch more that we can call on when we need them.  Of course not everyone is happy.  There are plenty of local people who think our work is pointless.  Others call us “the freak show”.  We don’t care, in-fact we like it!  They are old and in the way.  We are doing things a new way.  We let them wait for their cavalry.  If it comes we will eat their horses! 

We take out a lease on some dilapidated greenhouses for a peppercorn rent and try our hand at growing organic vegetables to sell at local markets.  We think the vegetables grow well but apparently our carrots  are the wrong shape!  We are ten years too early with the organic thing!  We eat the vegetables and switch to growing flowers.  They sell better and we begin to get ideas.

By 1994 the ideas have turned into ambitions.   We blag money from the Welsh Office and move into some dilapidated industrial units.  Now we have a base.  Vales Community Business changes it’s name to Arts Factory.  We shed our skin and move into a new era.  We are scrounging stuff from everywhere and manage to win the support of a couple of charitable trusts.   Within a year we have transformed our units.  We turn the grounds into gardens and create offices, a woodcraft workshop, art space and a full-on garden centre!  In 1996 we get some lottery funding and add a pottery.  By now we’ve got some great facilities and we want to show them off and make the most of them so we open up for evening classes.  More people get involved.  We hold a summer festival on our site – live music, good food, arts and crafts, face-painting and the obligatory bouncy castle.  Over 1,000 people come.

Onto 1997.  Somehow we are now employing over 20 people.  Over 100 people volunteer at Arts Factory every week.  A lot of them are young people as we have invested heavily in a youth work programme.  They are labelled “disaffected youth” but we explain that’s fine – we are disaffected adults.  We need space to grow and we want to get Arts Factory onto the high street where we will be more visible.  Our industrial units are a little tucked away.  We set our sites on a derelict chapel, Trerhondda, and start to circulate a proposal to turn it into a multi-use community facility.  We tour the pubs and clubs telling people about our plans and find there is a lot of local support.  The owners are happy to sell it to us for next to nothing as it has become a liability to them.  We try to talk to the council about our plans but don’t get far.  We don’t understand why, but sympathetic council officers explain off the record that the lady mayoress hates the building and wants it pulled down.  Local politicians tell us to back off and stick to working with disabled people, otherwise they will see us shut down.  We don’t like being threatened and we go for it collecting over 4,000 signatures on a petition supporting our proposal and forcing a public enquiry.  At the enquiry the council parade a succession of expert  witnesses with a succession of reasons why the building should be torn down.   Their barrister leans on a big pile of leather bound legal books when he talks.  We don’t have a barrister, any legal books or expert witnesses because we don’t have any money.  We have a flipchart and a chief executive prepared to stand-up and speak with real passion about our plans for the building.  We win and Trerhondda is ours, but we have made some real enemies. 

Something else happens in 1997.  A Labour government wins the general election.   Some people get ready to greet the cavalry.  They never come.  More significantly for us, it is the year that we launch our graphic design service, which will become one of Arts Factory’s most successful social enterprises.   It is also the year that we conduct the first social audit that has been done by any organisation in Wales.

Over the next couple of years we redevelop Trerhondda phase by phase, as we are able to raise the money.  As soon as the building is made safe and we have got a roof on we start holding raves in it.  Young people come and they are the type of young people we could not have reached through more traditional youth work.  They help us to refurbish the ground floor, and then finally the first floor.  By 1999 the building is being used by over 500 people every week.

By then we have contracted with the government’s “New Deal” programme, providing work experience to “job seekers”.  Except for a whole load of reasons many are not actually seeking jobs.  For the first time we have people at Arts Factory who don’t really want to be there and it has a massive cultural impact.   We gradually disengage from the programme.  Some of the job seekers who have got the point stay on at Arts Factory as volunteers.   Some are still with us today.  They still don’t have what society calls  “jobs” and they have no interest in getting them,  but they have done more useful work over the last ten years than they would ever have done in a lifetime on some production line.  I am very proud to work alongside them. 

1999 – devolution.  Still no cavalry.  Instead we get a new beaurocracy.

By 2000 we have reached our tenth anniversary.   Sustainability has become a big issue.  We understand the depth of the problems in our communities and we know that if we are going to make a real difference we need to be around for the long term.  But financially we are very fragile.  We have no reserves and while we are earning some money and pulling in some grants it is all very hand to mouth.  Cash flow is a nightmare.  Our pottery has never generated the sales we’d hoped for and reluctantly we close it.  Our garden centre is next to go.  It has never made us any money, struggling to break even at best and we have a lot of cash tied-up in stock which we need to free-up.  We reign-in our youth work programme.  This is our first experience of downsizing at Arts Factory and it is incredibly painful but we learn a lot.

We are looking for the big one, something that will secure Arts Factory’s long term future.  We initiate a joint venture with a private sector partner to develop a wind-farm in the Rhondda.  If we can pull it off it will provide us with a core income stream for the next twenty years.  We work hard to make the deal and to win European Objective One investment for the project.  We campaign locally and win a lot of support.  Community based organisations from all over the UK send letters supporting us but local politicians are vigorously opposed to the project.  They are the same people that opposed our redevelopment of Trerhondda.  Progress through the planning system is painfully slow.  Eventually the local authority hear our application and they turn it down, against the advice of their own officers.  We go to appeal and prepare for another public inquiry.  We win this one too and at last we have planning consent for a wind-farm.  It has taken five years!  But all is not well.  Our partners have sold their share in the project to another company.  They are less interested in the idea  of a joint venture with a development trust and they  try to squeeze us out of the project.  We resist and we are still in there but time is ticking on.  Eventually they decide that they don’t want to pursue it at all, leaving is to find another partner, but by now our option to develop the land has lapsed and we fail to raise the funds to renew it.  Another developer steps in and secures the site.  They are not interested in a partnership.  Game over.  Years of hard work up in smoke.  More pain, more learning. 

By now we are deep into Europe, drawing down ESF to fund an informal learning programme that reaches literally thousands of local people.   But in 2004 a bid unexpectedly fails and we are forced to downsize again, laying off valued team members that we have spent years developing.  Six months later a similar bid is successful and we are recruiting again.  We are locked into systemic funding insanity.   In 2007 the Objective One programme comes to an end.  The Welsh Assembly Government  has failed miserably to dovetail the forthcoming Convergence programme.  We can’t bridge the gap.  More downsizing, more pain.  We learn not to depend on Europe.

We create two new joint venture companies with fellow development trusts as partners.  One to develop a construction-based social enterprise making improvements to social housing stock, and one to develop a social enterprise manufacturing biodiesel from waste vegetable oil. 

In 2008 we launch Factory Books, our on-line bookstore and within 12 months we have 20,000 books listed and we’re breaking even.  Just a month ago we launched a business providing IT solutions.  DTA Wales were our first customer.

So that brings us up to the present and by now I think you will have glimpsed the other side of the coin.  It has been a hard journey to get to where we are today.  And where are we?  In many ways Arts Factory is back where it all started.  Some good people, with some good ideas, and the commitment, energy and enthusiasm to make things happen.  Our culture is robust but financially we are still incredibly fragile.  We have no financial reserves, we have loans and a massive overdraft.  We are still surviving hand to mouth,  juggling that cash flow.  But we didn’t stand still to get here, we have done the miles, we’ve walked the talk and learned our lessons.   A lot of people’s lives have changed for the better because of their involvement with Arts Factory, and I know that because they tell me.  Our work has inspired other people to stand-up and do what’s necessary in their own communities, and I know that because they tell me.   And when all is said and done that is what Arts Factory is all about – changing people’s lives for the better.  The buildings and the businesses are just the tools we use to do it. 

What about the future?  It is uncertain, unwritten, like it always was.  These days we do have a clear strategy.  We are completely focussed on developing our enterprise portfolio to the point where it funds all of our operating costs, and we won’t be distracted from that.  The work we want to do is far too important to be left to the vagaries of government programmes and the grace and favour of grant funders.  We will continue to tap into these opportunities when we can, but only to fund work that directly contributes to our long term sustainability.  Over the last few years we have significantly increased the proportion of our  income that’s earned through trading.  We know that it will be very hard to maintain that trend in the face of the current recession.  These are challenging times, but we have never ducked a challenge. 

In closing I would like to say two things.  The first is to directed to those of you who are here representing government  departments.  Take a risk.  When you see positive people, with good ideas, who are prepared to step-up and work to transform their communities, get behind them.  Give them the resources they need to get things moving.  They are taking a risk.  They are daring to hope, daring to act, and they’re risking failure and all of the humiliation and hurt that comes with that.  That takes real courage and they need you to be courageous too and share some of that risk with them.   Some will fail, but many will succeed.  If we don’t learn to take that risk together nothing will change.

The second is directed to the members of DTA Scotland, and particularly those that might be thinking of joining.  We didn’t make this journey on our own.  We would never have made it.  For our first five years we were working in isolation.  We didn’t know anyone else who shared our agenda,  who believed that the solutions to the problems our communities faced lay within those communities themselves.  Sure,  we knew of various voluntary associations and all sorts of charities but none that had the ethos of building community at their heart.  There was no internet to search then and no community sector. Then in 1995 I went to a conference run by something called the Development Trusts Association – it was the first I’d heard of them but the programme looked interesting and I thought I’d check it out.  I came back to Wales and said to my chief executive “I have found them!”  He asked “Who?” and I said “the others.”    When he met them he knew exactly what I meant and we have been active members of the DTA ever since.  We had found a group of people who shared our values and our ethos.  They had ideas, knowledge, contacts, skills and experience that they were happy to share.   When we ran into problems we had people we could ring for advice.  When we could help them we were happy to.  Arts Factory was instrumental in setting up DTA Wales and we have worked hard to build our membership there.  I can’t over-emphasise the value we have had from being part of this movement for change.  We have found that it’s like many things – the more you put in the more you get out.  So if you are here because the programme looked interesting and now you are wondering whether it’s worth joining – just do it.  You won’t regret it.  If you are already a committed member of DTA Scotland then you already know what I am talking about.  We have our Welsh conference on July 8th and 9th and it would be good to welcome some of you there.  E-mail me if you want the details.

One final thing and it is a shameless plug.  If you want to show your support for Arts Factory you can.  You can buy our graphic design services.  Distance isn’t a problem.  We can video conference and work with you on-line.  E-mail me about that too!

Thanks for listening

Third Sector Enterprise & Credit Union Funds

Summary of Proposals Approved Under Delegated Authority

Aberdeen Forward – is an environmental charity working in the field of sustainable development and is being offered £58,860 to make capital improvements at its recently purchased premises and to develop its marketing plan in order to increase its customer base and income generation potential. 
 

Capital Credit Union – is being offered £69,000 to deliver a partnership initiative involving Discovery Credit Union, Grampian Credit Union and Kingdom Credit Union.  The investment will provide a Financial Education Officer to support the four Credit Unions who are also receiving DWP Growth Fund.  Overall this project will help to develop the long term sustainability of the DWP Growth Fund investment, as well as building the capacity of the organisations involved and improving the quality of life of Credit Union members and beneficiaries. 
 

Changeworks – Resources for Life – is a rapidly growing energy and recycling enterprise based in Edinburgh and is being offered £67,500 for selecting and implementing new accounting and HR systems and software to improve organisational support.
 

Creetown Initiative – is based in Newton Stewart and was set up in 2001 by a group of local people to address issues affecting the area from the decline in traditional industries such as farming and forestry.  Creetown Initiative is being offered £49,880 to develop external revenue generating projects, including a Windfarm.  This income will support the organisation in its work in regenerating their area.
 

Crisis – is based in Erskine and provides professional counselling services to people in immediate need of support.  Clients include children, adolescents and adults dealing with issues such as acute trauma, stress, anxiety, depression, physical and emotional difficulties, job loss, grief, personal loss, addiction problems, bullying and behavioural problems.  The organisation is being offered £65,900 to support a new Business Development Manager post to secure new contracts and repeat business, freeing up the time of the Chief Executive to concentrate on strategic management.  Funding is also being provided for marketing, investment in new software, and training for staff to report, record and evidence outcomes. 
 

Friends of the Award in Edinburgh and Lothians – is based in Edinburgh and is being offered £69,051 to market and deliver consultancy and training for the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme to Local Authorities across Scotland.  This will initially be piloted in East, Mid and West Lothian.  Partnerships with the business sector will also be developed to identify and provide training and employment opportunities for young people. 
 

Glasgow South Credit Union – has worked closely with New Gorbals Housing Association to secure new premises which are located at the heart of the community they serve.  This will help grow the business benefitting the Credit Union, its members and the local community.  An offer of £24,700 is towards the fit out of new premises. 
 

Multi Ethnic Aberdeen Limited (MeAL) – is based in Aberdeen and provides support to the minority ethnic population in the North East of Scotland.  MeAL is being offered £68,485 from the Enterprise Fund to build its capacity and extend their employment service to cover a wider geographic area to include local regeneration areas in Aberdeen and rural Aberdeenshire.
 

Possil & Milton on Disability T/A The Disability Community – is based in Possilpark, Glasgow and provides support to disabled people within the local community.  It is being offered £68,845 to allow it to extend its hot meal service across North Glasgow and introduce a new community laundry service. 
 

Renfrewshire-wide Credit Union – is being offered £6,000 to develop a strategic plan for growth and create an interactive website that meets the needs of members.  It will allow people who are not physically capable to come into the office to access to credit union services on line.
 

Rosemount Lifelong Learning – based in Royston, Glasgow, is being offered £69,628 to contribute to the costs of employing a Contracts Development Manager to prepare tenders and bids for new services including family support, employability, vocational training and child care support.   Funding will also be used to employ a part time Monitoring Officer and a part time IT Administrator.
 

Sikh Sanjog – is based in Edinburgh and is being offered £69,700 to develop its catering social enterprise providing traditional Punjab food in the heart of Leith, and to provide training and start-up costs in its first year of operation.  
 

 See press release here http://www.senscot.net/view_art.php?viewid=8249

Argyll and Bute Council and the Community Planning Partnership are urging Third Sector organisations to have their say about the services and support they receive from a range of bodies.

The dialogue – ‘Connecting and Communicating’ – aims to Build Confidence, Capacity and Competence in the Third Sector and is open to voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations, as well as individuals who have experience of working in the sector.

Councillor Dick Walsh, Leader of Argyll and Bute Council and Third Sector Champion says: “We are working together, in partnership, to improve access to information and to break down some of the barriers that voluntary organisations and community groups are faced with when trying to access support.

“We aim to highlight good practice to lead the way forward to an improved way of operating, which we hope will go a long way to strengthening the voluntary and community sector.”

CouncillorWalsh is also the Chair of the Demonstration Project, Harnessing the Potential of the Third Sector, which is focusing on four themes:

•Funding
• Assets
• Procurement
• Skills and Training for Social Enterprise

A series of events will take place between May and July to ensure that the proposed improvement measures are going to be of benefit to the sector.

Representatives of the sector will have the opportunity to share their views on changes to the Community Planning Partnership structure and the Community Engagement Strategy, as well as the Demonstration project and improved ways of accessing information and training.

The feedback will enable those from the Third Sector to influence the way the Council and its partners deliver support services at a local and an Argyll-wide level.

The dialogue between the Council, the CPP and the Third Sector will incorporate a range of workshop sessions and online information, and consultation materials will be accessible throughout the period.

If you would like more information on ‘Connecting and Communicating’, or for a diary of events, visit www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/thirdsector or call 01546 604437.

The consultation is being carried out by Argyll and Bute Council and hosted on the websites of Argyll and Bute Council, Argyll and Bute Social Enterprise Network and Argyll CVS

A year ago the Community Planning Partnership, together with partners from the Big Lottery Fund, launched a Demonstration Project aimed at identifying ways to strengthen work with the Third Sector. The following themes were seen to be the key areas for development:

1) Funding – ensuring that funding streams are appropriate and considering issues such as the impact of local community action plans, the removal of ring-fencing, etc

2) Assets – improving community sustainability through the Third Sector’s ability to acquire assets;

3) Procurement – removing barriers and identifying training to enable Third Sector bodies to successfully bid for contracts; and

4) Social Enterprises – putting procedures in place to ensure existing and new social enterprises have access to training and information to allow them to develop and grow

Author: The Herald

SCOTLAND is missing out on the potential benefits of an approach proven to strengthen communities and improve the impact of regeneration work, a conference will hear this week.

The Social Capital and Community Resilience conference, being held at New Lanark on Thursday, has attracted a host of international experts in the field, but Scottish policy-makers have yet to take advantage of the concept, according to organisers Assist Social Capital.

Colin Campbell, executive director of Assist, said: “It is disappointing that when social capital is seen around the world as such an important currency, the Government’s enterprising third sector plan doesn’t mention it once, and it isn’t mentioned in the community empowerment plan either.”

Social capital is the value placed on community networks and links in building stronger communities and helping individuals within them overcome challenges and setbacks.

Social theorists describe it as the social glue which helps communities cope with shocks such as natural disasters, loss of livelihoods, environmental degradation and economic hardship.

The conference’s keynote speaker, Dr Manfred Hellrigl, programme director at the Office for Future Related Issues in Austria, will discuss citizen involvement and sustainable development in communities. Other sessions will focus on how social capital can help government agencies and non-governmental and third sector organisations build sustainable communities.

Cambell said the theory was backed by a wealth of international academic research but was not so widely adopted in practice.

“We are holding this event in New Lanark, where Robert Owen pioneered free education and the co-operative movement in the nineteenth century. Despite the new millennium, I don’t think we are that much further forward.

“Where there are low levels of social capital there are direct consequences such as higher rates of crime, illness, poor health and environmental degradation.

“We are swimming in a sea of social capital all the time, but we don’t know it until we lose it.

“Social capital hit a post-war high, in terms of the sense of community, but since then it has been eroded by modern life. The pace of modern living doesn’t allow people to build those relationships. People are building relationships online but it is not the same.”

One organisation taking part in the event is Here We Are, a community network based around the parish of Cairndow in Argyll.

Founder Christina Noble set it up in 1998 after running a walking company in the Himalayas.

She had seen how local men were amazed at the interest shown by travellers in their daily lives, and the boost in confidence it gave them.

She thought there was space for a visitor centre in Scotland which would allow visitors to explore and understand the way of life of people in the West Highlands, instead of traditional stories of ghosts, castles and battles.

The Here We Are centre, which opened in 2001, operates seven days and has developed to include meeting facilities, a service point for Argyll and Bute Council and a learning centre for the University of the Highlands and Islands.

Noble, who will speak at the conference, said the plan is for the centre to become self-sustaining. “The parish includes Ardkinglas House, the first in the area to have electricity. Now we have a biomass plant for woodchips which we supply to a salmon hatchery.”

The community is also developing a micro hydropower scheme, and it’s approach is being copied in Iceland.

Thornlie Primary School in Pather, Wishaw, will also take part in the conference.

Pupils will sing at the conference and talk about a scheme which has linked them up with a school and orphanage in the country of Georgia.

Campbell said the conference would highlight the role of social capital as the missing link which makes other forms of wealth work – human, physical and financial.

Economist and social scientist Professor Herbert Simon has argued that 90% of global economic income is derived from forms of social capital, he added.

“At a time when we hear about overpopulation, inequality, environmental disasters and economic crisis, social capital is what people rely on when little else is being created,” he said.

Speech at DTA National Policy Symposium
Naomi Alexander

Hello Everyone. My name is Naomi Alexander and I’m here to talk to you about the CREATE Consortium’s campaign to establish the Community Allowance as part of the UK benefits system.

Our work focuses on the intersection between the benefits system and community regeneration.

The story of the Community Allowance started back in 2001 at the first meeting of the National Community Forum, when all 24 community activists from across the country unanimously agreed that the benefits trap was one of the biggest barriers to achieving neighbourhood renewal.

The benefits trap is an unintended result of the benefits system as it is currently structured. The cost to the nation goes far beyond the impact on individual benefits claimants and their families. Whole communities are caught in this trap and so too are our attempts at neighbourhood and civil renewal.

We spend £92 billion a year on benefits payments.

Not in administration, not in employment support, but the actual weekly payments.

This £92 billion is the national bill for the most elaborate and complex poverty trap imaginable. It provides few stepping stones to avoid or escape the trap.

At the heart of the trap is the ‘earnings disregard’, which is the amount you are allowed to keep on top of benefits if you do part time work – literally, the earnings disregarded by the benefits system.

Shockingly, for people on Job Seekers Allowance, the ‘earnings disregard’ still remains at the same level it was in 1988: £5 a week – less than an hours work on today’s minimum wage.

I’m sure I’m not the only one in this room to see a cruel injustice in a country that has allowed MPs to freely dip into the public purse to fund lavish lifestyles, spending £600 on pot plants. While someone receiving Job Seekers Allowance of £60.48 a week will have penny for penny taken back by the state for anything they earn over £5.

Not only that, but people who declare paid work that is less than 16 hours a week can have their payments thrown into chaos for months, often leaving them with nothing to live on and facing threats of eviction.

Where is the incentive to get try and back into work? And what does this system say about the way we view benefits claimants?

I’d like to show you a short film we made last year about how these issues are played out on one estate in Milton Keynes.

Through the Community Allowance campaign we have been asking whether there is a way of seeing the benefits spend differently. Is it possible to see benefits as an investment in some of our most deprived communities, rather than as a drain on tax-payer’s money? Could we see it as a hand up and not a hand out?

The Community Allowance is a proposal to enable community organisations to pay local unemployed people to do part time or sessional work that strengthens their local community and for those people to be able to keep their benefits and keep what they earn on top of their benefits, up to a maximum of £86 a week, which is the equivalent of 15 hours a week on the minimum wage.

If implemented, the Community Allowance would provide small, manageable and supported stepping-stones for people to begin the journey off benefits and into work.

At the heart of the Community Allowance is part time and sessional work of the kind Lisa wanted to get going on her estate. As we all know, such work plays a major role in the community sector, with so many potential jobs that can help deliver positive change. Many of these jobs come in at under 16 hours a week, which if you’re on benefits, is the magical but somewhat random ‘safe’ number of hours you can work and have your benefits protected as tax credits kick in at this point.

What could be achieved if on every estate there were jobs for 2 hours running a lunch club for older people, 4 hours doing detached youth work, 3 hours doing community health work or 2 hours running arts or sports classes. We’ve all seen how this work can really change people’s lives!

However, policy makers attach a low value to this kind of community activity. It certainly seems that the DWP don’t always view it as ‘real work’ as it doesn’t fit their model of a 16 – 40 hour working week. Yet this kind of work can have a transformative affect both on the confidence and skills of the individual doing it and the community benefiting from the activity.

Since we started the campaign we have achieved a great deal through the work of all our supporters.

Over 3000 people have visited the Community Allowance website and we have attracted over 100 organisations to back our call for a Community Allowance pilot, most of who have written directly to James Purnell and Hazel Blears calling for a pilot programme.

Last summer, our intensive lobbying was rewarded with a commitment to pilot the Community Allowance in the Community Empowerment White Paper produced by DCLG – they have been fantastic advocates for the Community Allowance across Government.

In the autumn, the Department for Work and Pensions included a commitment to pilot the Community Allowance in the Welfare Reform White Paper for people on Employment and Support Allowance. This is a significant step forward in being able to realize our goal, but we still have a long way to go.

We are trying to achieve our ultimate goal of the Community Allowance for anyone on any benefit. Earlier this year we submitted a proposal to DWP’s innovative Right to Bid scheme, for £2.2 million to run a pilot programme with 15 community anchor organisations across the UK.

We’ve got through to the last stage of assessment and civil servants from across DWP are meeting next week to make a decision. We know that the Directors across DWP have been discussing the Community Allowance.

While its good to know we’re having an impact on DWP thinking, it’s important to keep in mind the wider context of the recession and the impact this is having on the lives of millions of people across the UK.

Yesterday I spoke to a manager of a Citizens Advice Bureau in Cornwall. He told me that since last year he has seen a 103% increase in enquiries related to mortgage repayments and repossessions and a 336% increase in enquiries concerning redundancy. Earlier this year Save the Children took the unprecedented step of giving cash handouts to families in the UK, something it usually reserves for disaster affected communities in developing countries. These are sure signs of a society under stress. The Community Allowance is needed now more than ever.

Despite this, both Labour and the Tories are still talking about bringing in ‘work for your benefits’ schemes.  Mandatory, full-time, unpaid community work for those who have been on JSA for more than two years. In the interests of state choice and procurement rules, this could be delivered by public, private or voluntary sector, ‘depending on who does it best’. I’m sure this audience would agree that using community work as a punishment for being out of work during a recession is a disastrous mistake. We need to make absolutely clear that we as a sector will not endorse it.

Community work can be a carrot not a stick. 15% of the population, or 8 million people, live in ‘deprived areas’, and changing those areas is not just about squeezing people into a job at Tesco. The costs of ongoing deprivation to society and the state go way beyond the welfare cheque – eating into our taxes across health, drugs, crime, prisons, housing, social work, policing, and the enormous burden to the future caused by poor educational outcomes.

The community sector has been saying for a long time that we need to show government just how much is saved by sustained, deep-rooted community work.

How much better would it be, how much more would we save, if the people doing the community work were those most at risk of the benefits trap?

This week we are pleased to announce that one of the UK’s leading think tanks, the the New Economics Foundation, will be conducting a Social Return on Investment study on the Community Allowance, thanks to the support of our funder, The Hadley Trust.

We’re going to incorporate the NEF findings with think pieces from leading lights on the left and right of the policy spectrum, including Julia Unwin who spoke earlier and Phillip Blond, senior advisor to the Conservatives. We will be taking this evidence to the three main political party conferences in the Autumn, challenging politicians to see how the Community Allowance can ‘lift’ a whole community, increase confidence and pride, bring out the best in people and stimulate local economic activity.

To sum up:

We believe we need to change our approach to worklessness in order to achieve neighbourhood renewal, community empowerment and social justice

We need to integrate welfare with regeneration, creating jobs for people who live in the area being regenerated.

We need to fight the old ideologies, not by saying ‘it’s not fair!’ but by creating a positive vision of how different things could be

We need to challenge Britain, the 4th richest country in the world to live up to its ideals and to use the Community Allowance to see the potential of benefits spend as an investment in our most deprived communities.

If you agree, we would love to involve you more in the work of the CREATE Consortium, especially during our work this conference season. Please get in touch and together lets work to make the Community Allowance a reality.

Thank you for listening.

Transforming Communities for Good

A manifesto from the Development Trusts Association

Summary

The community enterprise movement, and our 450 development trusts in particular, are a great success story.

In the face of global uncertainties and the economic downturn, we offer a community-led solution, increasing confidence and pride, bringing out the best in people, improving relationships between different groups, stimulating local economic activity, and improving stewardship of scarce resources.

We make five pledges:

to help every community set up an effective development trust
to promote community ownership of land and buildings
to grow a culture of community enterprise
to build alliances with partners in all sectors
to demonstrate community impact
We call on government:

to shift regeneration spend towards community investment
to provide access to assets for community groups
to ensure community vehicles are established in all new town developments
to introduce fair contracts
to make the business support system relevant for community enterprise
to introduce a Community Allowance
These actions will take us towards our goal: that all communities will become places where people feel common ownership and pride, places which allow everyone to achieve their potential, and places which are socially, economically and environmentally prosperous.

1. Transforming communities for good
Development trusts are community organisations using self-help, social enterprise, and asset ownership, to transform their community for good. There are 450 development trusts, operating in both urban and rural areas right across the UK. This is a great success story – one which gives us real hope there is a better way of doing things.

The vision of the Development Trusts Association is that all communities will become places where people feel common ownership and places which allow everyone to achieve their potential, and places are socially, economically and environmentally prosperous.

2. A community-led response to the big challenges we face
Local communities face uncertainty and challenge. The economic downturn, technological change, widening social divisions and the poverty gap, demographic change, the affordable housing crisis, the threat of climate change – all of these will have far reaching impacts in every part of the country. If we fail to respond effectively, our communities will become fragmented and demoralised, with negative consequences for all of us.

Should we leave it to others to find all the solutions? No! All the efforts of government and others will ultimately be in vain if communities, at a local level, are not themselves the driver for change. We believe that development trusts, with a people-led problem-solving culture, are the most effective vehicle for a community-led response.

Our experience has been that, even in the most difficult circumstances, people can achieve surprising and extraordinary results. This is especially true where community organisations develop a culture of community-led enterprise, developing into businesses which can trade successfully, generating surpluses to be reinvested for community purpose, and at the same time improving lives.

We have also learned that community asset ownership is a foundation for community transformation and empowerment. Bringing underused and even derelict land and buildings into community ownership can overcome blight, deliver facilities that people want, generate community income, and increase the spirit of community self-help.

At its best, this way of doing things ‘lifts’ a whole community, increasing confidence and pride, bringing out the best in people, improving relationships between different groups, stimulating local economic activity, improving stewardship of scarce resources. In every sense, development trusts create wealth in communities, and keep it there.

3. Our pledges
In order to grow the community enterprise movement the Development Trusts Association will:

Help every community establish an effective development trust
But not at the expense of quality! We will help every development trust achieve recognised organisational performance standards, and make it easier for development trusts to learn from each other, unlocking skills and expertise, enhancing leadership, and building on success right across the country.

Promote community ownership of land and buildings
We will help development trusts develop local assets and bring land and buildings into viable community ownership, delivering services and facilities. We will help development trusts establish community land trusts and similar vehicles to safeguard community benefit and increase the supply of affordable housing.

Grow a culture of community enterprise
We will provide business diagnostic and support, to help development trusts operate as profitable and thriving social enterprises.

Build alliances with partners in all sectors
We will help development trusts improve understanding of community enterprise among third sector partners, local councils, housing associations, and businesses, and build alliances with them.

Demonstrate community impact
We will help development trusts find the best ways to tackle entrenched poverty and combat social injustice. We will help them deliver environmental benefits, through renewable energy and other schemes. We will help development trusts improve engagement with, and accountability to, the diversity of people and groupings that exist in every community. We will help development trusts understand and demonstrate the impacts they make.

4. What we want government to do
National and local government deserves praise for much progress in recent years. The policy recognition, across all political parties, for the value of social enterprise and community asset ownership is very welcome. There has been a genuine effort to achieve better targeted funding and improvement to the legal and regulatory framework within which we operate.

But we are still at the beginning of a journey, and if we are to realise the potential of the community enterprise movement we need government to act on the following:

Shift regeneration spend towards community investment:
National government should shift resources to increase the availability of investment for community enterprise and asset development. Our experience has been that investment readiness assistance, development finance, rapid and flexible finance for capital development (grants, patient loans, and equity), and post investment business support to ensure sustainable enterprise, are all in short supply. £250m in the next three year spending round will lever in additional resources (public grants, private investment, community shares) and deliver the capital foundation and organisational capability for the next 500 development trusts.

Provide access to assets:
A mechanism, drawing on lessons from the community right to buy legislation which exists in Scotland for rural areas, should be introduced to create a window for community groups to acquire key community assets (land and buildings) from both the public and private sectors.

Ensure community vehicles are established in all new towns:
New town developments, and large scale redevelopments, should always include provision for asset transfer to an independent community vehicle such as a development trust, with expert assistance and start up costs – creating the foundation for community land trusts and other community asset development initiatives.

Introduce fair contracts:
The way that public sector contracts are negotiated continues to create profound vulnerability for the community sector and misses a major opportunity for the public sector to multiply the local effect of their spending. Many public bodies award third sector contracts on the basis of cost, and this leads to a situation where full costs are not covered – indeed 40% of our members end up subsiding public service delivery. The way forward is that public bodies should award contracts on the basis of price, quality, and community benefit (the use of social clauses should be extended across public sector procurement). This would mean that public bodies would achieve greater local benefit for their spend, and effective community groups would be able to generate surpluses to increase their sustainability, independence, and community impact.

Make business support relevant for community enterprise:
The know-how that exists within front-line community enterprises is a vital resource for stimulating the next generation of viable community enterprises. Government should ensure that the business support system invests in specialist community enterprise business support and in particular expands resources for peer-to-peer learning.

Introduce a community allowance:
We do not believe that compulsory community ‘workfare’ would ever be effective, yet clearly the benefits system needs reform. Community work should be an incentive not a punishment, part of the carrot not one of the sticks. At present the system undermines opportunities for local sessional and short-term paid community work as a step towards more permanent employment and a contribution to strengthening local neighbourhoods. Government should introduce a community allowance to provide the flexibility to encourage this to happen.

About development trusts
Development trusts use self-help, trading for social purpose, and ownership of buildings and land, to bring about long-term social, economic and environmental benefits in their community.

They operate in both urban and rural areas, often in neighbourhoods which have experienced the worst economic decline. They are independent, but work with the public sector, private businesses, and with other community groups.

They are community ‘anchor’ organisations, delivering services and facilities, finding solutions to local problems, and helping other organisations and initiatives succeed. They create wealth in communities – and keep it there.

There are now 450 development trusts in DTA membership, in both urban and rural areas. While many are still small, others are operating at scale: the combined turnover is £260m including £105m earned income, and development trusts have £490m of assets in community ownership.