First round of initiatives from the Sustainable Communities Act

Cutting the carbon footprint of street signs and opening up empty business premises for community use, are just two of the radical new plans announced by Communities Secretary John Denham in response to ideas generated by local communities.
Mr Denham set out the top ten proposals to receive Government support as part of a pioneering programme of local devolution aimed at helping boost local economies and improve communities.
These have been chosen as the first ten because they offer the best potential to bring real benefits to the community. They address genuine local concerns and maximise their impact by building on existing Government initiatives.
Other proposals given backing today will:

• help communities develop renewable energy,
• boost local communities by ending restrictive covenants when pubs are sold,
• support a wider role for post offices in communities,
• give communities the right to buy disused buildings,
• promote allotments and allow gardeners to sell their surplus produce.

This initiative follows the passage of the Sustainable Communities Act in 2007. The Government has been considering a range of ideas from hundreds of councils from across the country. A total of 300 ideas were originally submitted to the Local Government Association. These varied considerably with some needing no Government action as local councils already have the powers to implement the changes themselves. The Government plans to continue work with the LGA to give all the proposals proper consideration.
For more information visit the Communities and Local Government website.

Launch of Government Food 2030 Strategy

Yesterday the Government launched its Food 2030 Strategy at the Oxford Farming Conference - the first major food strategy in over 50 years. Commentary from the food and farming sector seems to be fairly thin on the ground - maybe it's the new year freeze. However, Peter Couchman, Chief Executive of the Plunkett Foundation which leads the Making Local Food Work programme, is quoted today as saying: “While we welcome this as the first major food report in sixty years, we feel that the vision set out in the report does not reflect the change in the relationships that consumers increasingly want to have with the food they eat and who produces it.” Read Plunkett's full take on the strategy here. As one of the partner organisations in Making Local Food Work we've seen the huge appetite for community-led food production that Peter is advocating. Interesting article in the Guardian this Monday about the strategy, including some fairly scathing criticism from Sustain.

Consultation responses

We have recently responded to two government consultation responses.
The first was to the Office of the Third Sector's consultation on the creation of a Social Investment Wholesale Bank. To read a summary of our response, or download the full version, visit our website.
The second was to the Department for Energy and Climate Change's consultation on Renewable Electricity Financial Incentives, which detailed proposals for the long-awaited renewable energy feed-in tariff. To read a summary of our response, or download the full version, visit our website.

New research from Defra on third sector and waste management

Defra has funded three research projects relating to social enterprise and waste management.

The first of these, 'Benefits of Third Sector Involvement in Waste Management' has been published and provides evidence of the wide range of social, economic and environmental benefits that are gained when social enterprises engage in the delivery of waste services. This research used an abridged version of Social Return On Investment to understand, measure and report on the social, environmental and economic value that is being created by third sector waste management organisations.

Two further reports in this series will be published in the near future, entitled “Unlocking the Potential of Community Composting” and “Social Enterprises and Sustainable Waste and Resource Management: Evaluating Impacts, Capacities and Opportunities”. I’ll post links as they are published.
 
To access the report visit Defra's Third Sector Blog.
 
In 2007 Co-operatives UK commissioned a report into co-operative and community recycling, 'A Better Way to Recycle'. Read a case study of a recycling co-operative here.

Personalisation Commission

ACEVO has convened a Personalisation Commission, chaired by Matthew Pike, to consider the impact of this public services agenda on the third sector. For information, the Personalisation Commission has produced its first briefing, which examines the personalisation landscape and personalised funding methods currently in use. It offers an overview of the current state of play. The briefing is available here. The Commission is now seeking your input to inform its work. To support this, they have constructed a short online survey. This survey covers issues ranging from vision and leadership, to pricing, marketing strategies, technology and performance measurement, and applies right across the service spectrum – not just health and social care. To complete the survey and provide feedback, please click on the appropriate link below:
- Front line organisation
- Organisation providing support to other third sector organisations (infrastructure)
Please take time to complete the survey and feed in your views.
For further information, please contact Nick Carey, 0207 280 4936 or Nickc@acevo.org.uk.

Co‑operatives and local communities - a positive impact?

Do you think that your co‑operative makes a positive difference to the local community where it operates? We know that many co‑operatives do and so are putting in place a programme of activity to begin evidencing this impact. The first stage of this programme is a survey to begin capturing exactly what this impact is. For example, do staff or members get involved in local volunteer work or participate in local decision making? We would be grateful if you could complete a survey, or pass this information on to a colleague who might be interested. The survey is designed to give us an indication of what further action we might undertake in order to promote the role of the co‑operative movement in local regeneration. To complete the survey follow this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=IAT7CnjTiQYwfE3Rd0k6Aw_3d_3d

Green Alliance seeks third sector opionions on climate change

Green Alliance are seeking to understand activities and opinions on climate change across the third sector. Please follow the link for an online version of the questionnaire: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=9gtbbEuu35micMhYIdMjzw_3d_3d

Please also follow this link to the activities sheet, which is designed for wide circulation amongst those people most closely involved in the design or delivery of climate change initiatives within each organisation: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=clotXKkSHG2OyPF2qSybcw_3d_3d