In our latest blog, our head of policy and communications @maddiejennings.bsky.social reflects on the significance of this report and outlines practical opportunities for the government to make neighbourhood renewal real. Read it here: bit.ly/4q3E5rR

[2/2]

Read our full response here: communitywealthfund.org.uk/englands-mos... (3/3)

[2/2] Speaking at the conference, our head of policy & comms @maddiejennings.bsky.social highlighted the work of Big Local areas to emphasise, “Social clubs are among the engines of social capital, improving outcomes in health, education, employment & wellbeing.”
Read her reflections: bit.ly/4mjeb0n

In this piece, Tracy shares how Big Local brought people together and transformed relationships across its several local estates: bit.ly/47vsPOj

[2/2]

A few favourite moments of mine from just a few of the 100 Big Local areas I’ve visited - including my very urban son getting to ride a pony at the W12 Together Health and Wellbeing Festival last year 🥳

⚽️ Finally & most obviously - if you want people to be more active don’t give them another app - give them social infrastructure in the form of playing fields, playgrounds, outdoor and indoor gyms, walkable neighbourhoods!

✨But but but the recognition of place as being of central importance + the foregrounding of the social determinants of health + calling out the proliferation of complicated schemes that fail to support collaboration 👌🏽

🏘️ Speaking of neighbourhoods - 45,000 people is a massive population size and means a lot of communities with specific needs are still going to a get a one size fits all service. Health inequalities are often at the starkest at the hyperlocal level (think North Kensington)

Here’s a link to the book - stuffed with enough luminaries that getting each one to sign your copy could become a niche sport bookstore.emerald.com/making-equal...

As an aside, in a crowd of about 40 I think I spotted at least half a dozen current or former @localtrust.org.uk staff - we’re like a diaspora community for spotlighting hyperlocal inequalities ✊🏼

Baroness Hilary Armstrong, chair of @iconeighbours.bsky.social also contributed a chapter on the continuing struggle against inequality within Labour and spoke passionately about the place based roots of inequality and the importance of tackling the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods

Making Equal is edited by Graeme Atherton and includes contributions from David Blunkett, Jon Cruddas and Rupa Huq as well as a chapter on neighbourhood level inequality from former @localtrust.org.uk CEO @mattleach.bsky.social