Overview
We’ve launched Save our Spaces, a campaign to save our much-loved publicly owned buildings and spaces from being sold off for private use. Locality submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to all councils in England to try and get a better sense of the problem.
We were shocked to learn that on average more than 4,000 publicly owned buildings and spaces in England are being sold off every year. That’s more than four times the number of Starbucks in the UK. This is a sell off on a massive scale.
Read more about it in our new report ‘The Great British Sell Off’.
Related reports
Power Partnerships: Learning on localism with four local authorities
Over the past year, we have been working in four places, Cornwall, Southwark, Stevenage and Wigan, to test our findings from the Localism Commission and implement our recommendations in practice. Our action research partners included councillors, council officers and community organisations in each area. Our research with Par Bay Big Local, South Bermondsey Big Local and Leigh Neighbours, also involved interviews with residents in these neighbourhoods. Through interviews, roundtables, local and national workshops, we have learned more about how councils can drive forward a radical new localism agenda. In partnership we have sought to strengthen existing practice and find opportunities to go further.
Powerful Communities, Strong Economies
In community hands
Our new report, In Community Hands, reveals the scale of community asset transfer across the country and shines a light on best practice from local authorities and community organisations.
In partnership with Co-op, this report reveals that on average 350 buildings and spaces are being transferred to community ownership each year. However this compares to the 4,000 each year we know are being lost to private ownership.
The research also shines a light on the pioneering local authorities who have been supporting communities to take on ownership of much loved buildings and spaces. It demonstrates the tangible benefits community-run and locally-rooted projects bring to local places – which at Locality we see every day.