Of course for government big is always beautiful. The same I suspect is true of the big banks. Both want to say they’ve enabled big sums to be given to big organisations to make big differences. The inconvenient truth however is that big charities have big overheads and big picture vision.
As part of the bid an innovative voluntary landlord and developer group was formed as a partner with a commitment to support the aims both through cooperation and funding, which will hopefully bring some more thoughtful approaches to the way space is developed, rather than ad hoc apartments springing up on every spare inch as we’ve endured these past ten years.
Small groups, often comprising just volunteers, battle against the odds to give life to a building for which there is no market solution and which is often blighting the surrounding area through its dereliction. Adding 20% to the overall costs of essential alterations could stop many of these projects in their tracks.
I believe the lack of a ‘why?’ and the narrative is a major problem in getting growth going again and garnering long-term support for their deficit reduction programme.
I’ve been publishing a social impact report on my services and activities every year for the last six years! Doing so has helped me better identify, and further enhance, the ways in which my values inform my working practices and my impact on my local economy.
In a world where turbulent economies, environmental and social change will increasingly be the norm, this practical resilience guide – with a focus on the built and natural form of cities – is of value
Disparities between UK cities are likely to widen further. Cities with less dynamic private sectors are suffering in the face of public sector cuts and global uncertainty. Other cities are likely to bounce back from the recession far more quickly.
We had an extremely difficult job narrowing down a shortlist from such high quality nominees. Here are the shortlists for each of the four categories…
For many of these men, even those who have managed to slowly get on top of their addiction, the future still seems bleak. They feel worthless and alone. They live in poor quality short-term hostel accommodation which they described as ‘life-sucking’. Some of them do work, all cash in hand, a trend that they felt would only increase as the squeeze on benefits progressed.
My problem with the report as a whole is that it is part of the popular story that says our businesses are drowning in red tape, and it is this red tape above everything else that is preventing them from creating jobs and driving the economy out of recession.
