social enterprise

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Conservative plans for a 90% positive vote by local people for affordable village homes could hand a veto to Nimbys, according to the National Housing Federation (NHF).

The Conservatives are proposing the creation of local housing trusts (LHTs), new community-led bodies with planning powers to develop local homes.

However, LHTs would only be able to build new homes where there is strong community backing - defined as 90%.

The NHF supports LHTs, but says the 90% threshold of local support is ‘far too high’ and that the majority of rural dwellers agree.

Recent opinion polling of 800 rural dwellers across England, conducted on behalf of the organisation, revealed just 4% believed a level of 90% was the correct figure, with 54% opting for 50-70%.

The federation says there is a growing rural housing crisis, with a lack of affordable homes in villages and market towns driving thousands of young people and families from the countryside to urban areas every year.

As a result, many villages become increasingly populated by older people, wealthy commuters and second homeowners, with the knock-on effect of services and amenities coming under threat because of a decline in traditional customer bases.

A lack of new properties in rural areas has led to a record 750,000 people waiting for an affordable home in villages and market towns.

NHF chief executive David Orr said: ‘There will always be some people who oppose the idea of building any new homes and, if the threshold for a vote in favour of new affordable housing is set as high as 90%, then we believe that small groups of local Nimbys will virtually always be able to block the proposals.’

Tory shadow housing minister Grant Shapps is due to discuss LHTs during a keynote speech tonight in St Minver, Wadebridge, Cornwall.

Cornwall Rural Housing Association was the first to pioneer the Community Land Trust model which the LHT proposals are based on.

Director Peter Moore said: ‘We’ve proved in Cornwall that we can use this model to produce affordable housing with community support. The LHT proposals could enable other communities to benefit – but to make that happen, we need a lower support threshold and dedicated support for communities who want to do this.’

Read Bob Coleknutt’s blog on the Conservative party and nimbyism - http://tiny.cc/L3UXg

This article is provided courtesy of the news feed at http://www.newstartmag.co.uk/news

A charity project in Liverpool is using cutting edge digital technology – and a giant penguin - to enable people to have their say on the big issues facing their communities.

‘Penny the Penguin’ is a user-friendly festive art installation, with the ability to record video comments from people about their local area and the issues close to their heart.

Part of Go Penguins, a Merseyside-wide cultural art initiative, Penny combines visual and online technology to ‘talk’ to visitors at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and encourage donations to Liverpool Unites, a charity which helps community groups positively engage children and young people and help break the cycle of crime and poverty.

All of Penny’s footage will be fed back to a supporting website where the films can be viewed online, while graphic design and digital media specialists ICE, who created Penny, will use the videos as potentially useful insight for its social change projects.

Stuart Jackson, ICE chief executive said: ‘We strongly emphasise creative thinking and digital expertise to drive forward community engagement and consultation - listening to people, in order to understand their needs and bring about real and lasting change.

‘We’re passionate about using digital media innovatively to create dialogue with communities, rather than just passive one-way communication, and that’s exactly what our interactive penguin will do.’

‘Penny is an easy and fun way of encouraging people of all ages – and from all sections of the community - to think about the important issues affecting them and the areas where they live.”

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Equal citizenship and sweeping tax and welfare reforms are the cornerstones of a major new strategy to reduce, eliminate and prevent poverty in Britain.

The Fabian Society and Webb Memorial Trust’s Social solidarity report, published today, argues New Labour's covert redistribution has failed to win public support for tackling poverty and inequality.

With 20% of the population still in poverty, the report says the government must ‘reassert the value of a welfare state that binds us together’.

Reforming the tax and welfare systems would see higher earners fund more generous universal benefits, say report authors Tim Horton and James Gregory.

Moving away from universal benefits would create a ‘them and us’ society, the two-year study warns.

Social solidarity is the final report of the two organisations’ Fighting poverty and inequality in an age of affluence research project, commemorating the centenary of Beatrice Webb's 1909 Minority Report to the poor law reform commission.

Webb’s report set out the vision, arguments and values of social justice and challenged the dominant assumption that the poor were solely to blame for their own poverty, identifying society’s ‘collective responsibility to prevent poverty, not merely alleviate it’.
 

This article is provided courtesy of the news feed at http://www.newstartmag.co.uk/news

The Association of Town Centre Management (ATCM) has joined forces with the Improvement and Development Agency and the National Skills Academy for Retail to search for scores of schemes that will help steer high streets back onto the road to recovery.

The 100 most effective initiatives will be compiled into an online report ‘toolkit’, which will also be made available to town centre managers, local authority economic development officers, the retail industry, RDAs, Chambers of Commerce and policymakers.

Retail analysts Experian estimate 15% of stores will be vacant by the end of this year, meaning poor prospects for property owners, the remaining traders, customers and the employment market.

The high street has been in a ‘fight for survival for years’, according to the ATCM, battling the twin threats of internet shopping and out-of-town developments prior to the negative impact of recession.

But it has demonstrated its resilience and remained ‘the focal point for many communities’.

The association now wants to ensure the voices of town centre managers, local government, businesses and community members are all heard nationally via the toolkit.

Tried, tested and practical suggestions are being invited and can be submitted at www.atcm.org/latest-projects/index.php.

The survey will close on Friday 8 January 2010.