Community Power on the High Street: Taking on Buildings for Local Transformation

Strategies taken to identify buildings and owners include:

• Tools like LandInsight, planning portals, UForm, various agency and council sites, and the Land Registry;

• Walk and talk – simply asking, speaking to residents, neighbouring businesses and estate agents for ‘intel’.

In one neighbourhood, they’re using Airtable to track local data, power maps and space ownership:

“It’s not just about making a list, or visualising disconnected properties, but starting to see a landscape of human stories that are networked and connected in mutual support, towards shifting power and dynamics.”

Seek people and networks who have done this before.

For our programme partners, the space to come together with one another (through regular learning calls and residentials) to share support and resources is just as important as what happens on the ground.

Each Local Property Partnership is being matched with a peer mentor from the wider Platform Places network who has done this work before; such as CIVIC SQUARE, Makespace Oxford and Tyne & Wear Building Preservation Trust — as well as support from other participants of the Mycelial Network that Platform Places is co-facilitating.

They’re also engaged with peers on programmes such as Footwork People and Place, the Architectural Heritage Fund, and Stir to Action’s ABCs.

Seek out built environment professionals and housing associations in your neighbourhood and networks.

Getting the governance of your partnership right — for your context, group and aims — is key.

It’s one of the areas that often benefits from dedicated expert advice at the start.

Some funders provide support or fund early-stage governance consultancy as a component of their programmes (e.g. Architectural Heritage Fund Project Viability Funding, or National Lottery Community Fund — Awards for All).

Start thinking about:

1. where you are trying to get to;

2. what’s most important to you along the way.

Is it speed and ease of setup? Or corporate tax exemption? Or business rates relief (this can make a big difference if you’re taking on an empty building that isn’t immediately usable)?

Some structures are better understood by funders; others are excluded in their criteria (this varies). Certain structures will more directly align with your group’s values and ethos.

If you’re not yet clear on what the organisation will become, flexibility could be your top priority.

Ask yourself:

1. Which elements matter most now?

2. Which elements might matter more as you grow?

Some common structures include:

• Charities (CIO)

• Community Interest Company (CIC)

• Community Benefit Society (CBS)

• Co-operative Society

• Company Limited by Guarantee (CLG)

Recommended reading:

• ‘Jargon buster’ of legal and ownership structures

• Plunkett Foundation’s ‘Brief Guide to Legal Structures’

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Councils have the power to make planning permission conditional on the developer making a contribution to local community infrastructure. That’s called a Section 106 agreement.

For example, this can happen if the new development is expected to put a strain on resources (like more traffic) or intensify problems (like lack of affordable housing). The Section 106 grant scheme is open to all not-for-profit community organisations.

How to access?

• Check with the local planning authority to see if funds/spaces are available or if there are any developments in the pipeline.

• Build a strong relationship with the council over time, and show how you’re aligned with their priorities, highlighting local buy-in for your idea and how it addresses community needs.

• Approach developers to propose a use of space that’s Section 106-aligned, in anticipation of planning objections.

Wandsworth Town Local Property Partnership’s social value lease agreement is being proposed for a Section 106, while Bedminster Works is working to secure first right of refusal on a Section 106 commitment for a redevelopment on East Street.

It can help to chat to local business owners and tradespeople – they may hold direct relationships with landlords or they may have heard useful rumours about them and their plans for the building. Asking on local forums can yield local intelligence too. A personal introduction goes a long way.

Get clear on what you need from a space and what you can offer. How will your idea generate vibrancy and footfall? Write it down in a simple two-page proposal attached to a short email — a teaser to get the landlord to a conversation. 

Sometimes it’s quick responses, sometimes it’s a year or more of building relationships with a developer, with the actual final contract drafted up in just 20 minutes. It’s hard to predict in each case, and that’s why being resourced to play the long game and stay in the room is so important, which the Local Property Partnerships pilot programme affords.

One of the local partners shares this advice:

“Negotiation is all about timing. If they’re not prioritising social value, don’t give up: sometimes it’s tactical to wait until they’ve submitted a planning application and got challenges back, so you can sweep in with a solution. Unsurprisingly they can be more amenable at that point.”

Councils are breaking down the barriers for community access to space in various ways:

• Involving community organisations from the outset in regeneration plans, and offering flexible-rent ‘meanwhile’ leases before works begin, while involving the occupiers in Asset Transfer plans;

• Commissioning a Local Property Partnership (for example, Wandsworth Council seed-funded Wandsworth Town Property Partnership’s pilot phase prior to this programme). You can use this example template to send to your councillor(s);

• Helping map properties and assets available for transfer;

• Making introductions to estate agents and private landlords.

One local partner is in advanced negotiations for funding from the council to acquire an asset, and advises: “Be persistent and keep digging, even if one representative thinks there’s no money available.”

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