How community organisations can navigate divisive politics

At a time when politics seems to be splitting us apart, how can community organisations align appropriate political engagement with their core values?

Sam Pluckrose-Oliver, Policy and Public Affairs Manager

Read the Creating Places for Everyone report Book Navigating Divisive Politics discussion

The local and devolved elections on Thursday 7th May may prove to be the country’s most significant political moment since the last general election.

With national polling showing Reform UK eight or nine points ahead of Labour and the Conservatives – and the Green Party surging – mainstream centre-right and centre-left politics are struggling to find answers to significant public appetite for radical change.

Received wisdom suggests that “all politics is local”, with voters primarily motivated by the issues they see affecting day-to-day life in their own households and communities.

Locality members across England will be acutely aware of this as they support local people and communities with their most pressing issues – like social security, employment, housing, and health.

But in an era of seemingly global “polycrisis”, the fallout of international geopolitics and online cultural debates is also landing in our neighbourhoods.

While these issues transcend the remit of local politicians and will continue to be felt after the upcoming elections have concluded, any political issue – whether local or wider – will often become most visible in the run-up to polling day.

So, in the wake of two recent Locality reports, Community powered neighbourhoods and Creating places for everyone, promoting inclusive, cohesive, community-powered approaches to transforming our places, we explore how community organisations can best navigate political issues and the local tensions they may create.

Community organisations as civic institutions

As a network, we believe that successful community organisations serve five key functions that help create stronger, fairer, healthier places, including:

Supporting everyone to have a say over the decisions that affect their place
Facilitating wealth to flow into – and be shared fairly among – the whole community
Ensuring all people can access services that equitably meet their needs
Ensuring everyone is welcome and able to take part in their community, build relationships, and feel that they belong
Supporting all groups within the place to build their capacity and capabilities at the grassroots, share their strengths, and collaborate to solve local problems together.

Fulfilling these functions necessitates healthy civic debate about the issues that affect the private, community, and political lives of local people and groups. Holding space for such debate is not separate from “community work” – it is central to cultivating healthy, democratic community life.

Being led by and for local people, community organisations serve as trusted convenors and providers of space for debate, removed from party politics. But they also act as crucial advocates for the community, amplifying the views shared in those debates to influence decision-makers on key local policy issues.

As such, while it will be for each organisation individually to decide on the scope of such a duty based on their own situation, we should recognise that in these increasingly challenging times, the role of community organisations in this space is more important than ever.

We must guard against a lack of confidence having a chilling effect on advocacy, and Locality aims to support our members to engage with this civic role appropriately, safely, and effectively.

The law

With this in mind, we should be clear on the laws governing what charities and other organisations can and cannot do in the political and civic arenas.

Political activity, campaigning, and elections

There is a comprehensive legal framework for how charities can engage with political activity, campaigning, and elections. This guidance may also be helpful to other forms of community organisation to support good governance, and all organisations need to comply with electoral law.

The Charity Commission is clear that, by law:

While political campaigning and activity can be legitimate and valuable activities for a charity, it must be undertaken to support delivery of its charitable purpose
An organisation will not be charitable if its purposes are political (meaning any purpose directed at furthering the interests of any political party, or securing or opposing a change in the law, policy or decisions either in this country or abroad)
While a charity may choose to focus most, or all, of its resources on political activity for a period, political campaigning must not become the reason for the charity’s existence or its continuing and sole activity
In the political arena, a charity must stress its independence (particularly when supporting a policy that a political party or government also advocates) and must ensure that any involvement it has with political parties is balanced
A charity must not give support, resources (eg, free venue hire), or financial support to a politician or political party or candidate, nor encourage the public to vote for one party or another
Charity trustees must carefully weigh up the possible benefits of political campaigning and activity against the costs and risks when deciding whether it is likely to be an effective way of furthering or supporting the charity’s purposes
Trustees must not allow the charity to be used as a vehicle for the expression of the political views of any individual trustee or staff member.

Within this framework, however, there are some allowances that charities may wish to consider. It is crucial that any decisions taken in these areas are well documented and based on clear and justifiable reasoning to support the delivery of the organisation’s charitable purpose.

For example, charities are free to invite candidates and political party representatives to public meetings about issues on which the charity is campaigning.

One way of ensuring that the charity does not show support for any political party may be to invite representatives from as wide a political spectrum as possible.

However, this can be difficult to achieve in practice. A charity does not have to engage with all parties every time it does any work that engages with political parties. This is a judgment call for the trustees based on whether such engagement would further or hinder the interests of the charity.

There is scope for a charity to restrict engagement with certain parties where, for example:

An event will be more manageable or focused if all minority parties are excluded
It is advised, e.g., by the police, that the presence of a particular candidate at an event will create a risk of disorder (see more below)
The party advocates policies which are in contravention of the charity’s purposes, or whose presence or views and likely to alienate the charity’s supporters.

However, a charity would have to have very strong reasons for deciding not to invite a mainstream political party.

Public order

Public order legislation provides context for the application of the general rights to assembly and protest .

This includes justified limitations where authorities determine that any event will threaten public health or cause significant public disorder, property damage, or disruption to the life of the community. Restrictions may also be imposed when the protest is designed to intimidate others and prevent them from exercising their lawful rights.

As such, community organisations should liaise with police and local authorities ahead of any event they are organising or hosting that may impact public order, including those covering political issues.

Taking a values-based, equitable approach to political engagement

So how does a community organisation decide how and to what extent to engage in political debate in its local area?

The legal framework detailed above explains your rights and duties in the eyes of the state, but there is a wide spectrum of activity that could fall within it.

One organisation may choose to actively campaign on relevant issues and engage political figures, including by organising or hosting events. It may even choose not to engage certain political figures based on the impact their involvement could have on residents, assuming this is well-reasoned, evidenced, and not regarded as supporting or opposing a particular political party or candidate.

Another may decide that, while they will continue to support the needs of their community, they will not engage with any overtly political issue or figures, including groups who wish to make use of the civic space they provide.

There is no straightforward, right or wrong answer when deciding which position to take. But there is an approach rooted in equity and led by our network’s shared mission of social justice that can help steer us to a position most beneficial for the wellbeing of our organisations and the communities we serve.

As part of our Creating Places for Everyone (CPFE) programme, we are asking our members to sign our renewed Membership Charter. As well as laying out the five functions of community organisations above, it makes clear our network’s position that there can be no social justice in our places without justice for everyone who faces inequality based on their background and identity.

As such, we echo the sentiments of our friends and CPFE partners at New Ways, in encouraging political engagement that supports the delivery of organisational mission, protects the needs and safety of those most at risk of harm from divisive political rhetoric, and does not allow political actors to claim legitimacy based on proximity to community-led organisations.

This can help ensure that local political discourse remains focused on the shared needs and experiences of all residents, rather than exploiting the “wedge issues” that drive people apart at no benefit to the local area.

Moving forwards

We are keen to continue this conversation with Locality members. This is not an area with off-the-shelf answers; we believe the most useful learning can be found in discussion with others who are grappling with the same questions.

As such, on Wednesday 15th April, we’re hosting a member discussion event Navigating divisive politics for Essentials and Membership Plus members to facilitate peer-to-peer discussion on strategies and tactics for managing these thorny issues.

In the meantime, if you would like to speak to us about more bespoke support for your organisation’s particular situation, please contact members@locality.org.uk.

Disclaimer: This article is for general information. It’s not intended to be used as legal advice. 

Sam Pluckrose-Oliver is Locality's Policy & Public Affairs Manager