social enterprise

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Work has begun on a floating visitor centre at a reclaimed wetland habitat.

Inspired by ancient marshland villages, the new 106ha Brockholes Wetland and Woodland Reserve site, near Preston, will meet the highest official sustainability standards, a first for a UK visitor attraction.

Designed by Adam Khan Architects, the distinctive centre is expected to generate sufficient income to be sustainable from its opening day.

The design will incorporate construction materials such as FSC-certified timber and recycled scaffold boards, while biomass and solar technology will be used to generate heat and electricity.

The centre will float on the edge of one the main areas of water and include an education and exhibition space, shop and a restaurant promoting local produce.

A former gravel extraction site, Brockholes is owned and managed by Lancashire Wildlife Trust. The visitor centre is part of a wider project to turn the area into a premier natural visitor attraction, funded by the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) under the Forestry Commission-led land regeneration programme Newlands.

Richard Tracey, NWDA head of environmental quality, described the flagship project as a ‘prime example of how the natural environment can be harnessed to create real economic value’.

‘Brockholes will be a real asset for the local area that will not only provide a distinctive visitor attraction, but will also create new jobs on the site, enhancing quality of life for local residents and encouraging further investment into the area.’

The completed reserve and visitor centre is expected to be open by 2011.

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A multi-million pound raft of measures to tackle unemployment – including thousands of new opportunities for young people – has been unveiled by the government.

Everyone under 25 will be guaranteed a job, training or work experience after six months unemployment, work and pensions secretary Yvette Cooper has announced.

The white paper Building Britain’s recovery: achieving full employment sets out a £400m programme over the next 18 months, including £300m ring-fenced for youth unemployment.

A guarantee that every person on benefits for at least six months, whatever their age, would be at least £40 a week better off when moving into work was also announced as the ‘next step’ in the reform of the welfare system.

Expanding on measures previously announced by the chancellor in last week’s pre-budget report, the unemployment plans are part of an additional package of measures introduced to tackle what the government terms the ‘social wave’ of recession, and will include an additional £40m for scores of Working Neighbourhoods Fund hotspot areas as well as housing benefit changes.

Responding to the announcement, Will Nixon, chief executive of the Staffordshire based social enterprise PM Training, said the plans addressed ‘a policy deficit in government thinking’.

‘Efficient and effective training and employment methods, which create genuinely sustainable employment, have never been more crucial if we are to avoid creating a lost generation of young people,’ he said.

‘The promise of jobs, training and work experience for every young unemployed person at six months is no less than they deserve, and will yield wider benefits for society as a whole in terms of community engagement and economic prosperity.

‘The financial incentive of £12.5m for “golden hellos” to encourage employers to take on 16 and 17 year old apprentices makes good sense, particularly at a time when many businesses are still suffering the worst effects of the recession.’

Meanwhile, TUC analysis of official statistics also released this week showed young people are faring better compared with the last recession but warned youth unemployment should continue to be a ‘top priority’.

General secretary Brendan Barber said the recession was a ‘personal tragedy’ for every young person struggling to get work and on the impact of the previous downturn said it was ‘one 80s revival we do not need’.

'The Future Jobs Fund is providing new jobs at decent wages for young people, but it needs to be extended so all long-term unemployed young people can benefit,' he added.

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A major government drive to address concerns in traditional working class communities has been extended to include scores more areas.

The £12m Connecting Communities plan was launched in October to target a variety of pressures caused by unemployment, migration and a rise in antisocial behaviour.

Another 84 areas were this week identified and will now be incorporated into the scheme. They include Elswick in Newcastle, Gipton in Leeds and Bentilee in Stoke-on-Trent.

Communities secretary John Denham said at the time that the pace of change, for some, ‘led to a sense of resentment and a rise in insecurity and threatens to corrode the cohesion of these communities and create tensions’.

The government hopes Connecting Communities will help tackle ‘head on’ potentially divisive issues – both real and perceived – which, if left neglected, they say could prove ‘fertile territory’ for extremism.

‘The package of support will enable local people to influence, shape and change policies on issues which really matter in their community,’ said Mr Denham. ‘It will help to make sure that those people who are feeling the pressure the most are getting a bigger say and a fair deal.

‘And if we fail, the danger is that extremists will try to exploit dissatisfaction and insecurity in ways which will pull communities apart.’

Mr Denham also stressed that many local agencies may need to change the way they work or risk failing to address real issues and problems effectively.

Areas of the country selected for the initial phase included parts of Stoke-on-Trent, Nottingham, Leicester, Birmingham, Lincoln and Swindon.
The 27 neighbourhoods in the first stage of the programme have each drawn up individual plans addressing specific challenges with practical actions.

Progress to date includes:

• Local agencies in Speke, Liverpool, working with young people and single parents on employment opportunities
• Stanney in Ellesmere Port forming the neighbourhood's first ever community group
• Felling in Gateshead has developing a neighbourhood agreement setting out how residents, the council and partners can tackle local concerns
• A Youth Action Group is also being set up New Parks in Leicester as well as a skills project working with young people who are Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEETs)

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The government will today launch an independent Commission on Ownership in a bid to boost rates of public service delivery by employee or community-owned enterprises.

Applying the John Lewis Partnership model to hospitals, schools and housing could see service users turn from ‘passive’ to proactive under the new model of mutalism.

In the aftermath of the credit crunch and expenses scandal, people are looking for different types of organisations offering a greater sense of ownership and control, according to cabinet office minister Tessa Jowell, who will launch the commission during a speech to the think tank Progress this evening.

The MP will refer to society entering a ‘mutual moment’, where a new sense of community ownership can be created via better use of organisations in public service provision.

‘Public services are owned by the public, so the public must have the right to influence how those services are delivered,’ she will say. ‘We can’t really expect citizens to take on greater responsibility for their own health, learning and environmental impact if public services fail to give them the right to shape the ways they work.’

The new commission, chaired by economist Will Hutton and funded by Co-operative Financial Services, will be tasked with creating a level playing field for mutuals by encouraging greater input from staff and users and extending the right to ownership to communities.

The New Economics Foundation (Nef) today also called for service users to be involved in design and delivery, as opposed to ‘passive recipients’.

Nef’s The Challenge of Co-production report says: ‘Co-production allows health, education, policing and other public services to be delivered more effectively, more efficiently and more sustainably.’

As Labour pushes a ‘John Lewis’ service delivery model, Conservative leader David Cameron recently pitched the concept of ‘easyPolitics’, in which councils could opt to use a budget airline-style basic ‘no-frills’ package or charge top-up fees for additional services.