London Borough of Camden, ‘People and Place: Camden’

Pilot Partnerships for London’s High Streets: Demonstrator 3

Image: Description (Credit: )

“By the community, for the community: the council’s role as enabler”

Meet Daniel Wainwright and colleagues at Camden Council lead the Borough’s Estates and Neighbourhoods Mission, working towards a goal that by 2030 Camden’s estates and their neighbourhoods will be healthy, sustainable and unlock creativity. 

To bring this ambition to life, Camden Council partnered with Footwork's People and Place programme: bringing council officers and industry together, to provide mentoring, dialogue and relationship-building to help community innovators turn local ideas for empty buildings and land into reality. Alongside them, 17 community innovators across 9 projects are working to bring Camden's empty buildings and land to life, turning ideas rooted in local need into real projects. 

Motivation & Challenge

"Camden Council already runs a range of programmes to enable residents to develop and deliver social action ideas. The We Make Camden Kit offers small grants and applications are decided by a panel of residents.

The Community Champions programme has created roles for dedicated community 'activators' working with residents on a selection of council estates to bring to life ideas that could support health and wellbeing. Nonetheless, there is often still a power imbalance between the owners of assets (council or private) and those using, or hoping to use, assets (i.e. local community innovators).

This can determine whether a community-led idea ever gets off the ground, and whether it can be sustained: who gets to make decisions about a local space? How can community innovators gain access to derelict land? Whose voices are heard? Who can secure fair terms for a lease? Who can access investment for retrofit?"

– Daniel Wainwright, Portfolio Lead, London Borough of Camden

Daniel’s team recognised there is often a power imbalance between the owners of assets (council or private) and those using, or hoping to use, assets (i.e. local community innovators). This can determine whether a community-led idea ever gets off the ground, and whether it can be sustained: who gets to make decisions about a local space? How can community innovators gain access to derelict land? Whose voices are heard? Who can secure fair terms for a lease? Who can access investment for retrofit? 

Across Camden, community innovators are living this challenge first-hand: 

The Vision

“The Estates Mission is already working to address many of these problems, in particular through our Vacant Spaces and Community Champions programmes. Both programmes work deeply with communities to enable residents to take action. 

However, there is currently a gap in how we support residents to take on the responsibility of long-term place leadership in their communities.We want to create a cohort of empowered, networked, confident ‘place stewards’.” – Daniel Wainwright, Portfolio Lead, London Borough of Camden

That means:

• Investing in the visions of local residents and community organisations supporting them to kickstart or develop projects that bring buildings and land into meaningful use. 

• Building longer-term capacity and collective local power among community innovators, through peer support networks and partnerships that last beyond individual programmes. 

All of this needs a collaborative, partnership-based approach, rather than top-down.

To get there, what does good partnership look like?

In 2026, Camden Council is collaborating with charity Footwork Trust (Footwork) to launch ‘People and Place: Camden’ – a 12-month support programme for local community innovators who are working to transform neighbourhoods spaces across the Borough. This draws on Footwork’s three years of running national ‘People and Place’ programmes.

With the support of a Local Insights Group, nine innovators (groups and individuals) were selected. They’re each responding to a local issue or challenge and acting to shape their local environment. Their visions span many forms of ‘community asset development’: community ownership or use of buildings, greening and growing on land, transforming streets, retrofitting, facilities and hubs, advocacy for housing and greener neighbourhoods.

Through the programme, project leaders receive tailored support including expert mentorship, peer-learning opportunities, workshops, a £5,000 grant and opportunities to connect with other community asset developers across England.

Several threads of partnership run through People and Place, enabling new ways of working between the council, community innovators and other local stakeholders:

• Council x Community innovators
  As part of the programme, innovators connect with council’s regeneration and asset management teams through “buddy” relationships, workshops and events – to explore ways to unlock their ideas, remove barriers to securing or transforming assets, and bring other local stakeholders like developers and residents on board longer term. 

  
  

• Innovators x One another

  The nine groups form a cohort of place leaders. During the programme they learn from each other, support one another, share challenges and build relationships to last beyond the programme itself.

  
  

• Footwork x Community innovators

  Footwork convenes the cohort, creating and facilitating the peer-learning spaces, arranging peer-led visits to inspiring examples of community-led regeneration around the country, bringing in mentors and technical experts, connecting Camden’s innovators to a wider movement of community asset developers – and creating a supportive environment where new relationships between communities and the council and other partners can develop (or existing ones can be worked through and strengthened). 

  
  

• Innovators x Mentors

  Mentors from across the built environment and community asset sectors offer guidance, encouragement, technical support and connections to help innovators move their ideas forward.

  
  

• Innovators x Other local partners

  As ideas or project stages develop, innovators begin forming partnerships with others who can help bring them to life – from private asset owners and funders, to architects, developers and fellow residents and community groups.

  
  

Why is a programme-based partnership needed?

“We know that when community place leaders and innovators are not well supported, it can lead to burnout, isolation, and fatigue. This is especially true of leaders from marginalised communities who have traditionally been under-resourced and are responding to deeply specific neighbourhood needs. As well as emotional and peer support, those community leaders need the capacity and confidence in navigating the wider system of placemaking and local development.” – Footwork

The programme is designed to help address such gaps:

• Knowledge, transparency and understanding about property/asset decision making processes (planning, ownership, acquisition) and power holding

• Capacity for teams to engage in longer term strategic planning, rather than ‘fire-fighting’ in response to the immediate needs of their community

What we’re learning so far

Key enablers

Collaborative council:

• Forward-thinking local authorities willing to pilot new partnership models

Programme and funding partners:

• Support, and national learning and networks from Footwork, and funding partnership from Mayor of London

Revenue grants:

• Unrestricted grants give innovators ‘headspace’ to participate, to participate and develop their ideas

Local appetite:

• Strong engagement from residents and community organisations ready to drive change in their neighbourhood through space stewardship

Technical support:

• Engaged council officers playing ‘buddy’ role

• Committed built environment partners offering pro-bono technical support to help navigate complex development processes

Key blockers

Revenue funding gaps:

• Many projects face a funding cliff after early-stage programmes, highlighting the importance of building relationships with funders and developing viable long-term models in the 12 months

Council capacity:

• Supporting mission-led, community-led use of property requires time and capacity from local authority teams – and may be challenging to get going in other local authority contexts who don’t have the same ‘first mover’ characteristics/capabilities

Council risk appetite:

• Council appetite to move from communities ‘leasing and stewarding’ to communities ‘owning’ community assets requires shifts in policy and framing of risk

Communicating impact to private asset owners:

• Demonstrating the social and economic impact of community-led projects will be key to unlocking privately owned vacant spaces and funding streams such as Section 106 contributions

We hope to see …

20 local innovators better equipped to partner with the council on shaping their built environment 

9 flourishing partnerships between community groups and council partners

10,000 sqm total space transformed (and 10s of high street spaces opened) 

Secure £9M in capital and revenue funding to enable this

And ultimately:

A long-term network of place stewards in Camden making lasting change for healthy, sustainable, creative estates and neighbourhoods

“This is all about giving power to people who have deep roots in our communities and have the vision, tenacity and desire to make changes in their neighbourhoods or on their local estates.”

- Councillor Sagal Abdi-Wali

Want to know more about the Pilot Partnerships for London’s High Streets three live high street demonstrator projects?