NCBOR 2014 | How social enterprises work in the (green) maintenance of public space, Steve Clare (Locality)
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In de UK is het veel gebruikelijker dat bewoners en bedrijven (mede)verantwoordelijk zijn voor hun directe leefomgeving. Premier David cameron maakt zich hard voor het ontwikkelen van de "Big Society" om locale gemeenteschappen meer kracht te geven. Onze hoofdspreker Steve Clare van Locality, een Britse netwerk van vijfhonderd buurtbeheerorganisaties, vertelt ons over zijn praktijkervaringen in de UK. Hoe zijn de locale bewoners actief in het beheer van hun buurt? Wat levert dat de buurten en de gemeente op? Met welke wetgeving en organisatievormen hebben ze dat voor elkaar gekregen? En wat kunnen wij in Nederland van hen leren? Doen wij al veel aan bewonersparticipatie, of staan wij pas aan het begin van een onomkeerbare verandering...?
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NCBOR 2014 | How social enterprises work in the (green) maintenance of public space, Steve Clare (Locality)
- 1. Steve Clare, Deputy Chief Executive web: www.locality.org.uk
- 2. Over 500 members across England with almost £650m of community-owned assets – creating wealth in communities and keeping it there!
- 3. So what does the future hold…
- 4. The national context… “BIG SOCIETY” LOCALISM COMMUNITY RIGHTS
- 5. Right to Re-shape: the model of implementation Enabling people in the community to help design and deliver services Enabling community to support each other and themselves Joining up services to improve and transform them Getting the right services for the neighbourhood BUILDING RESILIENT COMMUNITIES AND IMPROVING SERVICES AND OUTCOMES IN NEIGHBOURHOODS Principles : The four key components of implementation: A focus on the needs of the neighbourhood Willingness to reshape services Collaboration with the community Partnership working between service providers
- 6. “Public spaces are not a frivolity. They are just as important as hospitals and schools. They create a sense of belonging. This creates a different type of society. A society where people of all income levels meet in public spaces is a more integrated, socially healthier one.” Enrique Peñalosa —former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia
- 7. Coin Street
- 8. Coin Street Organisational form CSCB: company limited by guarantee Coin Street Secondary Housing Co-operative (CSS): Industrial & Provident Act Society Coin Street Centre Trust (CSCT): company limited by guarantee registered with the Charity Commissioners. Role of residents Need to be local resident to be member of CSCB, CSCT or CSS Service users – can get involved in planning/running services Role of council Greater London Council (now abolished) initially lent £1m to purchase site Local authority – very little input initially. Now key partner
- 10. Heeley Millenium Park Organisational form Heeley Development Trust: company limited by guarantee with charitable aims Role of residents HDT membership open to local residents. High levels of engagement. Aiming to launch Park Membership Scheme in 2014 Role of council Created the problem and blocked the solution – often obstructive and unhelpful Pros & cons People taking responsibility when local state had no answers. Green space management financially challenging
- 11. Green Estates
- 12. Green Estates Organisational form Social enterprise: partnership between the Manor and Castle Development Trust (MCDT), Sheffield Wildlife Trust (SWT), Sheffield City Council (SCC) Role of residents Membership of MCDT open to all residents Wide range of volunteering opportunities Programme beneficiaries Role of council Key partner – but ‘equal’ partner Pros & cons Viable partnership that brings together various ‘agendas’
- 13. Park Innovators • Bloomsbury Square: levies on businesses • Sheffield and Manchester: endowments • Hackney: new services to businesses • Bournemouth: digital technologies • Liverpool: community management • Burnley: alternative management approaches • Edinburgh & Glasgow: digital mapping and engagement • Bristol: training & skills development
- 14. Citizen Action
- 15. “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete” R. Buckminster Fuller
- 17. Imagine this…
Editor's Notes
- Locality members are large and small, rural and urban – between them they employ almost 10,500 staff and engage 25,000 volunteers What they have in common are shared values and a belief in our communities - all are community owned and led and accountable to their communities They have a commitment to using community ownership and community enterprise to tackle poverty, deprivation and social exclusion and to promote empowerment, engagement and self-help
- There has been a fundamental change in post-war economic and social compact. ‘Welfare State’ model is broken and won’t be coming back even if the economy recovers – leading to fundamental questions being asked about role of state and citizen – who does what, who is responsible for what? In England, central govt support for Local Authorities will fall by 40% by end of parliament (2015). Already 40% cut in planning, 25% cut in culture, 20% cut in housing, 25% in highways. Money flows to very old and very young with place-based services hit hardest. Many councils estimate they will almost halve in size over current decade – barely halfway through period of fiscal consolidation. LA responses – re-trenchment alongside dash to digitise services; de-municipalisation – seeking to hand parks and cultural services to community, spin off leisure services into self-financing trusts (e.g. Suffolk transferred all libraries to n-f-p and gradually reducing subsidy – another LA cutting by 80%); commerciality – setting up profit-making businesses in fields such as energy generation Big question is whether these innovations will be sufficient to create a sustainable new approach to delivering local public services – answer is ‘No’ leads to “wasteland”. Cut services to the bone and especially those which contribute most to quality of life – parks, theatres, street cleaning. Or “wild meadow” – withdraw to core functions and hope a spontaneous order emerges to replace declining public services - some services effectively cease to be run by councils and remainder focused on prevention and self-help with highly targeted support for those who need it the most. Both lead to economist JK Galbraith called “private affluence and public squalor’ What is striking is lack of discussion about whether any of this will work. Neither of these options satisfactory - need to look beyond public sector to wider society for answers – councils must take on much bigger role in facilitating civic action, building stronger communities and encouraging the emergence of the new social economy. If we are to have less govt then one way or another we will need a stronger society
- UK government response – opened doors (and minds) but still top-down in practice Big Society – not all communities are equal. Most disadvantaged communities getting left even further behind. Community Rights – significant interest. Locality handled over 14,000 enquiries and over 250,000 web hits. Right to Bid – over 1500 assets of community value registered (only 60 or so transfers) Right to Build – minimal impact Right to Challenge – acknowledged as failure in own terms – less than 40 uses - seen as adversarial and not welcomed by local authorities who can impose unrealistic timeframes eg Sunderland advertised a two month window for EOIs. Has prompted discussion though and there is considerable interest in shaping and delivering local services (especially around social care and education). – should be reinvented as a Right to Reshape Services – giving communities greater powers and involvement in the design and delivery of local public services Neighbourhood planning – over 750 plans being developed (with statutory force but within presumption of growth). Aims to give local people more of a say in shaping a future vision for their communities. It is, however, more than just a plan – it is a transformative process and has empowered communities. We are now seeing newly developed and powerful partnerships emerging, groups getting involved in local public service transformation and in co-creating public services, encouraging the alignment of local budgets and services in an effort to create greater efficiencies, reduce costs and provide services of value and relevance to local people. Our Place – covering third of population (cf community budgeting) Struggling to find a different way of doing things – * Local by default campaign. * Culture change - at the moment we regard places as something we use and enjoy, and which we pay the council and other public services to maintain. This is a problem because the most hopeful scenario for local government is to shift the way that both councils and their citizens understand their places. Challenge is can we turn cuts into a catalyst not just for innovation in public services but for the building of a stronger social and voluntary economy? Alternative to ‘wasteland’ and ‘wild meadow’ approach – the Commons. Local govt very good at internal efficiency, getting better at working with partners – less good at working out how to engage citizens in the debate over the cuts and the future of public service delivery….
- Lambeth Council – 2013 consultation: 1,400 responses with 89% supporting greater use of community decision-making and 19 expressions of interest to take over some green space management responsibilities In 2007, Camden Council piloted a new approach to commissioning local services - based on an Outcomes Model of commissioning which the council developed in partnership with Voluntary Action Camden and the new economics foundation (nef). Camden piloted this approach, together with a co-production approach, in its recommissioning of day care services for people with mental health problems. Service users were fully involved in the commissioning process at every stage including: - the development of the tender specification - the development of the tender response (by the winning consortium) service delivery - monitoring and evaluation At tender specification development stage, Camden Council worked with service users and the new economics foundation (nef) to draw up a service specification which incorporated the principles of co-production.
- “Cultures and climates differ all over the world but people are the same. They will gather in public if you give them a good place to do it.” Places that have revitalized themselves by creating great public places: Copenhagen, Barcelona, Spain; Vancouver, Canada; Portland, Oregon; Bogota, Colombia; Cordoba, Argentina; Melbourne, Australia; Curitiba, Brazil; Freiburg, Germany; and Strasbourg, France. Melbourne made great efforts to keep its streets pedestrian-friendly by widening sidewalks and adding attractive features, which ignited a spectacular increase in people going out in public. Cordoba turned its riverfront into a series of popular parks. Curitiba pioneered an innovative bus rapid transit system that prevented traffic from overwhelming the fast-growing city. Portland put curbs on suburban sprawl and transformed a downtown area into a bustling urban magnet, starting by demolishing a parking garage to build a town square. Putting people at the centre… Delft – residents fed up with cars racing through their streets – dragged old couches etc into roadway and positioning them so cars could pass but only if they slowed down. Police soon arrived – illegal but had to admit it was a good idea. Soon city installing similar measures – “woonerfs” (Living Yards) What is important is that these are examples of viewing places more as commons, by which I mean those things that we all use but which none of us straightforwardly owns. This is a pre-industrial term which has acquired fresh meaning in the internet age, when the idea of a piece of land shared by all suddenly came to seem relevant to other common goods such as peer-produced software like the linux operating system. Indeed, some theorists have argued that the networked collaboration that makes linux such a powerful open source product represents a new form of economic activity taking place outside the market and the state. If we saw places as commons, we might do a few things differently. Firstly, we would come to see that one of the key roles for councils is to encourage a massive increase in the kind of social action that happens outside of market and state. Rather than simply encouraging citizens to be users/consumers or to contribute to maintenance like grass cutting, councils need to be much more open, much more ambitious, and encourage independent social action. The Italian city of Bologna shows just how different this approach might be – they are creating a central team to map, manage and support social action, creating a civic crowdfunding platform and running peer-to-peer workshops to bring together local innovators to rethink how places work and engage local communities.
- Started in 1977 as a campaign against office blocks – 7 years of campaigning until 1984 bought site. Coin Street Community Builders (CSCB) has transformed a largely derelict 13 acre site into a thriving mixed use neighbourhood by creating new co-operative homes; shops, galleries, restaurants, cafes and bars; a park and riverside walkway; sports facilities; by organising festivals and events; and by providing childcare, family support, learning, and enterprise support programmes. Income is generated from a variety of sources including the hire of retail and catering spaces, event spaces, meeting room spaces and conference venue spaces as well as the provision of consultancy services. Planning permission for 40 storey block of flats, Olympic size swimming pool and new Ballet Rambert HQ
- CSCB, CSS and CSCT share common aims and objectives To finance its initial purchase of the Coin Street area in 1984, Coin Street Community Builders borrowed approximately £1 million from the Greater London Enterprise Board and the Greater London Council. It has subsequently repaid these loans and financed its developments by borrowing from banks and the Nationwide Building Society.
- Unsurprisingly, the UK loves its parks. Many people see parks as the heart of their local community – they encourage health and well-being, provide safe places for children to play, promote civic pride, support biodiversity HMT – local community trust took over derelict 35,000 m2 site 1997 on 125 year lease from Sheffield Council – since secured over £1m to transform wasteland into flagship community park Also led on regeneration of the three almost derelict Grade II listed buildings on the site of the former Anns Grove School - lease eventually transferred to HDT ownership after 8 years of negotiation. £2.4 million has already been raised, with the first stage completed in Summer 2013. MORE WIDELY – urgent need to establish new business models and promote radical innovation in the way parks and other public spaces are supported and sustained in the future Offers communities opportunity to increasingly take control of neighbourhood assets – not just to maintain the status quo and bridge growing funding gap but to rethink and redesign in an ecologically and financially sustainable way that better meets the needs of local people Many parks under threat – 60%+ cuts in public funding
- A not for profit social enterprise based in Sheffield working for people, place and a fairer way of doing business. Green Estate Ltd started life in 1998 as the Environment and Heritage programme - instead of receiving core funding to support ongoing green space management we had to develop core commercial activities that could support a reasonably sized ‘green’ organisation still capable of addressing the areas environmental issues. This approach has resulted in the mix of commercial sales and services and social / environmental activities - together they are designed to make a difference to peoples lives in our neighbourhood. Over the years we have established different models of Stewardship for 17 local sites including Manor Fields District Park, the Sheffield Manor Lodge site, an urban farm and the Manor Pocket Parks (three small parks created in the first phases of neighbourhood regeneration from 2000 to 2002) – includes work experience and social activities for people who have Individual Budgets. We currently have 3 main programmes available running 50 weeks each year - each of the programmes offer our clients the opportunity to join and become an active and integral part of the Green Estate team. Wide variety of opportunities and additional progression routes which are designed to increase confidence, ensure ownership of areas of work, develop life skills, expand personal horizons & friendships as well as the chance to learn and gain work experience to aid and assist you in the future. We are really interested in how inner city ‘estate’ can be truly productive, how it can be better managed to help to mitigate some of the impacts of climate change, how it can contribute to our future energy, food and waste needs, how joined up green infrastructure can create living landscapes on a regional level and how great spaces can raise aspirations and quality of life for some of the most marginalised societies. Above all, how local management and an entrepreneurial approach can change our dependency culture, unlock local potential and resources, build social capital and establish really sustainable places to live, work and play in.
- b.
- One of the notable solutions being put into practice to combat this problem is New Urbanism, an architectural movement to build new communities (and revitalize existing ones) by maximizing opportunities for social exchange: public plazas, front porches, corner stores, coffee shops, neighborhood schools, narrow streets and, yes, sidewalks.
- Story of Incredible Edible – just do it. Created in 2008 in Todmorden, Yorkshire, the idea behind IET was beautifully simple. All over town, green areas of public land were going to waste. Even cultivated areas were not being used to their potential. Meanwhile, people were buying their food from far-flung places. Why not put these public spaces to more productive use? Importantly, this was not about waiting for hand outs, or some officials to give permission but to take responsibility and ‘do it yourself’. The focus of IET’s attention was food. Everyone understands food. Food could get people talking; even better, it could inspire people to take action. Before long, edible things were cropping up all over town in green spaces the organisation refers to as "propaganda gardens". Since its launch five years ago, IET has attracted almost 400 local volunteers and established 14 ‘local food’ plots within the community in venues as diverse as a Health Centre, an Old People’s Home, the Community College, the Police Station, the Fire Station, the Railway Station, bus stops and even a local graveyard. It has also delivered community learning activities in school playgrounds, through street sessions, and skills sharing in homes and on estates IET itself has created two social enterprise ‘spin-offs’: •the Incredible Farm (www.incrediblefarm.co.uk) which trains young people in the skills of growing and marketing food, produces, markets and sells food, and employs two apprentices, •the Incredible Aqua Garden (www.incredibleedibleaquagarden.co.uk) which provides sustainable food, education and learning via a variety of activities at an aqua and hydroponics farm, and also employs two apprentices. Since its launch, the Incredible Edible movement based in Todmorden has already inspired over 50 UK-based IE groups (see appendices 1 and 2) and over 300 worldwide. The Big Lunch is a very simple idea from the Eden Project. The aim is to get as many people as possible across the whole of the UK to have lunch with their neighbours annually on the first Sunday in June in a simple act of community, friendship and fun. Since starting in 2009, thousands of Big Lunches have taken place in all types of communities. In 2014, 4.83 million people took to their streets, gardens and community spaces for the sixth annual Big Lunch. The Big Lunch idea appeals to something that we all feel intuitively – that it feels right to know who we live beside and that we can gain a sense of well-being from being connected to our communities. Making these connections helps to build social capital – the idea that interactive networks between people have great value – and that social capital can help us all face society’s bigger challenges. The Big Lunch is inclusive to all communities and is helping to build social capital in the areas where it is needed most.
- Out of austerity comes innovation and experiment – but what is happening is even more fundamental: public service reform; place-making and sustainist design; digital and the sharing economy – “the democratization of everything” i.e. the Commons What is the benefit of all this to local public services? If we are looking for a direct business case which traces a line from civic commons to the council’s bottom line we are likely to struggle. The real case lies in building stronger and more resilient communities which can do more for themselves, and perhaps in adapting public services to a world in which around 70% of people distrust both the big state and big business. Where the big society agenda unsuccessfully invited communities to step into the gaps left by retreating public services, a commons-based agenda would support civic action for its own sake, in the knowledge that active and engaged older people tend to use fewer local services and that higher social capital is the nearest thing we have to a social policy silver bullet. LA challenge is “to help make people creative” – creative empowerment, encouraging ideas, incubating ideas, “playing the game of making better places” Starting point is the neighbourhood – the local: All of us are more likely to pitch in on causes that affect our own backyard. Destruction of the rainforest upsets us, but a threat to beloved trees a few blocks away will get us off the sofa to circulate petitions, organize protests and negotiate with the folks wielding chainsaws. And when we can see the direct effects of our actions, we are much more likely to stay involved and broaden our focus from local to global issues. Saving the trees in our neighborhood can inspire us to save the rainforest, too. The notion of the neighborhood as an important social institution might seem old-fashioned (as is the idea of the commons itself) to some - yet its actually as up-to-date as an internet café, where you find people communicating with New Zealand and Morocco at their laptops but also striking up conversations with someone at the next table. The mark of the 21st century person is to step out into the world on one foot but have the other squarely planted in his or her community. Even as our intellectual and economic horizons expand, the local community is still where we lead our lives, where our toes touch the ground, where everybody knows our name. Being rooted in the neighborhood of your choice (which may be far from the neighborhood where you grew up) offers not just comfort but a prime opportunity to make a difference in the world.
- To summarise… the challenge and the ingredients of success
- Imagine a community where everyone’s needs are met because people make the personal choice to share, support each other and work together for the common good. Where diversity and difference are welcomed. Where local people own and run key community assets – employing local people, keeping money circulating within the local economy, ensuring fresh local food is available to all and childcare, affordable housing and transport are abundant. Imagine a community where the people decide how public services are designed and delivered and how public sector budgets are spent. Where high quality facilities exist for young and old, where arts and culture flourish. Where energy is generated locally to meet local needs and to resource energy efficiency measures. Where the people generate investment capital through community shares and community bonds and manage their money through peer-to-peer lending, credit unions and local currencies. Is it just a dream? No – because it’s grounded in reality. Everything that’s imagined above already exists. We know this because communities across the world have been doing these things for years. What’s missing is that there’s no single community where all of these approaches and initiatives have been brought together. And until now there have been few efforts to create such communities. It’s time to change. Because there are proven solutions, there’s no need to doubt it can be done - and these solutions can be created by ordinary people (who become extraordinary in doing so). We need to move from: Old model – led by professionals, disempowered citizens, passive consumers TO treating citizens as equals, collaborative partners, active co-producers Top down organisational decision-making TO recognising the insights of front-line staff and the public Delivering services TO facilitating development and delivery of new approaches and new services One-size-fits-all, standardised services TO personalised, flexible, holistic, diverse solutions Defining people and places by problems and needs TO starting with people’s assets and potential