The Place Station and Building Calculator

The brains at Locality have combined technology, mapping, and their know-how of community buildings and land to produce two groundbreaking online tools assisting communities to make their area a much better place to live in!

Firstly The Place Station – it’s not a game but very interactive and with some serious outcomes. You can map land and buildings that you value in your area and find an asset too – a pub, shop or your post office – and pledge your support. This is very timely with the new Community Right to Bid in the Localism Act coming into force shortly. The new Community Rights give greater powers to individuals over local authorities and government; local authorities will be responsible for maintaining a list of land and buildings deemed to be of community value. When assets on the list come up for sale, the local community will have six months to raise the money to bid for them. Locality will be working with local authorities to publish their lists via The Place Station to create a one-stop-shop for mapping initiatives alongside offers of support. This is your chance to take control!

And the Building Calculator, what better endorsement than the fact its created in partnership with Davis Langdon, the global construction consultants? If you’re already an owner of a building or planning to take one on this is the perfect tool for arming you with the information you need for business planning when you acquire a building. It means you can forecast the maintenance and operational costs of managing a building ensuring yours is a sustainable enterprise. Using the most up-to-date building data and the whole life costing methodology employed by surveyors and construction professionals, this tool could not be easier to use for those who are completely new to the subject. It is the first such tool designed explicitly for community organisations, you can try it for free and there are options for online support and an on-site visit too.

If you care about your community these two tools are for you, they help bring local assets – land and buildings into community ownership and generate wealth amongst those who need it most.

• Find out more about Locality here