Report calls for community renewal to aid post COVID-19 recovery

Ministers must back grass roots community businesses as part of the government’s post-lockdown economic recovery plans, according to a new report.

The report by leading think tank Localis says community businesses and service hubs can help neighbourhoods thrive beyond the immediate Covid pandemic.

It argues that central government needs to show greater consistency and political will in supporting grass roots community ventures – or risk hampering recovery by sapping the energy and enthusiasm of capable volunteers.

And it calls for more core funding to help community asset bids, especially in less affluent places – and to also ensure volunteers are not threatened with benefit cuts in deprived areas where local people must take responsibility for building community capacity.

The report, which has been published today (3 June), also calls on the government to make the provision of parks and open spaces alongside support for ‘friends of’ groups should be a statutory requirement for councils.

It also recommends a six-month moratorium in selling an asset which is currently allowed to the community under Right to Bid should be extended to 12 months.

‘At a time when our very concept of social contact is being distorted and threatened by the need to respond to the C19 pandemic, our need for strong community ties has, paradoxically, never been greater,’ said Localis chief executive, Jonathan Werran.

‘The recovery will be driven as much by the dictates of restoring social wellbeing as economic renewal.  So, policy must be directed to allowing capable local people to provide all manner of niche services and neighbourhood enterprises in their community facilities and care for much-loved open spaces also.’

The director of the Power to Change Research Institute, Richard Harries added: ‘Months of social distancing have torn communities apart, separating children from their grandparents, and leaving many others coping alone with grief and loss.  Yet it has also brought communities together, as we gather each week to clap for the NHS and carers, and as we find new ways to share parks and green spaces.

‘This timely report presents central and local government with a golden opportunity to build on this national spirit of goodwill. We knew before the pandemic that local people were often best placed to meet local challenges. With millions of new volunteers keen to support others in their communities, now is the time to completely rethink how we invest in our shared social infrastructure.’

Photo Credit – Free-Photos (Pixabay)