18th November 2020

An Achilles heel of the community power movement has been the lack of rigorous academic research to back up some of the widely held assertions that, if implemented, would require most of our existing structures and systems to undergo radical overhaul. There is a view held by many, not often verbalised, that the limits of what communities can achieve have already been reached and any ambitions to go further should be constrained. The economist Elinor Ostrom, Nobel prize winner, made it her life’s work to refute that view. Her ideas have recently been reframed to fit current challenges. 

Many years ago when DTAS was getting off the ground, I had the pleasure to go on a fairly extended road trip around Scotland to meet those community organisations who might think about becoming members.  That trip included my first visit to Shetland and I’d been told I should head for a place called Northmavine. Last week, I dipped into DTAS’s Annual Conference and watched a lovely film about the work of Northmavine Community Development Company. The folk I met all those years ago, Margaret Roberts and Maree Hay, are still very much at the heart of things. Speaks volumes.

On 1st January, we’re leaving the EU. Hundreds of agreements and provisions that have been the basis of our relationship with the EU – that all need to be untangled in the very near future. Westminster has established a funding mechanism called the UK Shared Prosperity Fund which will replace the soon to disappear EU Structural Funds that have underpinned countless community initiatives over the years. Down south, a coalition of third sector intermediaries has come together to demand that they take control of the Shared Prosperity Fund. Is anything of a similar nature happening in Scotland?  SCVO?  

The Scottish Government’s five year national infrastructure investment plan is not usually cause for comment but something in the title caught the attention – ‘A National Mission with Local Impact’. Alongside the more predictable proposals for large scale infrastructure investment in roads, housing etc there were some that seem to reflect a genuine shift in focus to the local. Most notably £275m for community led regeneration – dubbed the new Place Based Investment Programme. An excellent briefing note from LGiU provides more detail. This could be significant if ‘community led regeneration’ actually translates as regeneration that is led by local people.