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Empowering Communities: A Reality Check on Community Rights

Explore the challenges and opportunities of Community Rights in action, from empowering local groups to influencing policy and asset management. Discover real stories of success and barriers faced in Dudley. Learn more and engage in the dialogue for a better future.

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Empowering Communities: A Reality Check on Community Rights

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  1. Community Rights: A Reality Check Nick Birdwww.urbanforum.org.uk

  2. Community Rights

  3. Community Right to Challenge

  4. Community Right to Buy

  5. Community Right to Build Neighbourhood Planning

  6. Community Rights Made Real (Dudley) Dudley Council for Voluntary Service Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council Dudley Community Partnership

  7. Some general issues Timing – at same time as cuts – retreat to ‘silos’ • Historical – people feel let down • by previous initiatives Policy priorities change - new initiatives don’t build on what already exists Culture shift – “On a bad day it feels like the Government is abdicating responsibility” Engagement is an intensive business. “You don’t become empowered by just having a right” Communities change. People come and go - groups wax and wane Difference in how different parts of the council operate. Difference between policy and practice Senior council officers have limited understanding of the VCS Differences between larger VCS and smaller community groups Local government seems to be waiting to see what happens rather than being proactive

  8. BARRIERS Community right to challenge • Meeting service delivery quality & standards • Destabilisation of services • Costs incurred in procurement • It will open the door to the private sector • Councils prefer one big contract rather than lots of smaller ones • Local knowledge & building the local economy versus cost Community right to buy • We will get the worst buildings • Groups don’t have the capacity to manage buildings • Renting is safer than buying • Assets can become liabilities • Limited power when up against the big players • It takes time to put a bid together

  9. Quite a positive response to Neighbourhood Planning But Very little feedback on Community Right to Build Some questions regarding Neighbourhood Planning How do we agree on a neighbourhood? What if the council disagrees with us? What about neighbourhoods that cross local authority boundaries? How do we decide who can vote in a referendum? What if there is a pocket of deprivation within a more affluent area and the residents have different needs?

  10. Our Society – Our Solutions Stories of success that are meaningful to local people Partnerships for delivering services and managing assets Networking / brokering “Anatomy of Services” • Different levels of service? • ‘Whole’ or ‘parts’ of a service? • The value of community groups? Better communication of council plans in a language that people understand Community Right to Challenge as a warning to instigate dialogue A flexible strategy around asset management

  11. Find out more: Policy briefings: Community Rights, Localism Bill, Big Society mini-briefings and more… www.urbanforum.org.uk/briefings Community Rights Policy Page: A collection of all our information resources on Community Rights www.urbanforum.org.uk/policy-pages/community-rights

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