social enterprise

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An image capturing rollerbladers in London’s Battersea Park has won a national competition celebrating the importance of green and open spaces to communities and quality of life.

Mat Ricardo, a comedy performer from London, took the winning photograph of rollerbladers enjoying a circuit of the park in the Postcards from the Park competition, organised by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Big Lottery Fund in partnership with parks charity Greenspace.

The image, entitled, Rollerbladers, impressed judges including photographer Mike McCartney, Angela Nicholson of Amateur Photographer Magazine and Tim Kerr from the Press Association.

Chief judge Mr McCartney described the image as ‘full of energy and surprise’.

Mr Ricardo’s success was announced today by environmentalist and wildlife photographer Chris Packham at the Southwark Park Café Gallery.The winning picture will be professionally displayed along with other photographs of public parks at an exhibition at the gallery.

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Voluntary organisations and social enterprises can now become key players in the new local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) following a challenge to the government from the sector.

The National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (Navca) says pressure from its members has reversed the original decision, which appeared to exclude the voluntary and community sector from the new LEPs, which will replace regional development agencies.

In a letter to one of Navca’s members, communities and decentralisation minister Greg Clark said he welcomed the involvement of voluntary organisations and also made clear the government recognises the ‘considerable’ economic impact of the sector.

The challenge was mounted by Navca after business secretary Vince Cable and communities secretary Eric Pickles wrote to council chiefs in July, inviting businesses and local authorities to work together to develop LEP proposals, but did not extend the invitation to voluntary and community sector organisations.

Navca chief executive Kevin Curley said: ‘This is a victory for the voluntary and community sector and a welcome and timely recognition of the economic impact of our sector. It also shows it is important for us to be prepared to tell the government when we think they have got things wrong.’

A key issue to emerge from New Start’s recent LEP round table event was the importance of community organisations and social enterprises in making LEP activities effective in disadvantaged areas. Read more in the September edition of New Start.

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

A shift away from multiple occupancy could transform the social fabric of universities and coastal towns and must be carefully managed, policymakers were warned today.

The Royal Geographical Society conference taking place in London this week heard findings from the first comprehensive study of homes of multiple occupation (HMOs) in England.

Research presented yesterday by Darren Smith of Loughborough University, found that while the number of HMOs in university towns is on the decline, they are taking a stranglehold on coastal towns.

But Dr Smith, the academic who popularlised the term ‘studentification’, told New Start that the popularity of upmarket purpose built accommodation was decanting students from traditionally popular neighbourhoods and risked polarising the property market.

He added that lower admission levels and the increasing numbers of students studying closer to home might also have an effect on the local property market. But he warned against making assumptions, adding that an increase in foreign students and local ones who decide to move out of the family home may cancel out these changes.

Dr Smith said policy changes might also have a dramatic impact on coastal towns, which according to his research are home to a disproportionate number of HMOs.

An analysis of data obtained from the DCLG reveals that 38 of England’s seaside towns are host to almost one in eight of HMOs outside London. Of these, 20 are in the top 30 ranking for housing benefit recipients nationally, with the highest proportions in Blackpool, Hastings, Torbay and Thanet.

But Dr Smith said places like Morcambe and Hastings were starting to tackle the dominance of HMOs in the housing market by encouraging their conversion into family homes.

The coalition government announced on 17 June it was abandoning Labour’s plans to require planning permission for homes to be converted into HMOs, but for the local authorities to be allowed to place their own restrictions on conversions. These new arrangements are due to come into effect from 1 October.

And with plans for lower levels of housing benefit for claimants, Dr Smith said some HMO landlords may choose to convert their properties into single dwellings.

He added that coastal towns must learn from cities like Birmingham and Leeds where areas dominated by HMO were abandoned by students.

'If coastal towns are going to be gentrified then people are going to be displaced,' he said. 'On the other hand, the changes to housing benefit could equally send them into further decline.'