£2.5 million National Lottery funding gives communities power to transform town centre buildings
Five neighbourhoods in England join new pilot to secure and revive spaces for long-term local benefit.
New pilot programme seeds ‘Local Property Partnerships’ in neighbourhoods in Bristol, Liverpool City Region, London, Newcastle and Sheffield.
Funding will empower local community leaders to acquire, activate and steward buildings in high streets and town centres.
Tried-and-tested approach of community-led retrofit is set to help tackle vacancies, improve social infrastructure and meet local needs.
Thanks to National Lottery players, Platform Places (a national cross-sector collaboration and not-for-profit social enterprise) and its partners will receive almost £2.5 million over three years from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest community funder in the UK.
The funding will be used to enable communities to come together and secure long-term spaces for the activities and services that they need the most.
Rebecca Trevalyan, Co-founder and Co-director at Platform Places, said:
“One in seven high-street shops are empty. Many more are underused or at risk of becoming so. At the same time, it’s often expensive and precarious for local businesses and community organisations to access secure, affordable workspace.
Now more than ever, we need services in our town centres that help address the cost-of-living, social isolation and climate crises – whether arts and music venues, reuse and repair hubs, urban farms, community kitchens, youth and sports clubs, local markets, co-working spaces, or genuinely affordable housing.”
Beginning October 2024, the fund and programme will resource local leaders who are already engaged in this work in five neighbourhoods: Bedminster, Bristol; Byker and surrounding areas, Newcastle; Darnall Ward, Sheffield; Knowsley and St Helens, Liverpool City Region; Wandsworth Town, London.
Each place will work towards shifting multiple buildings into long-term local ownership, using the Local Property Partnership approach – a tried-and-tested process whereby community leaders and local businesses work together with councils, funders and private assets owners to unlock town centre buildings for local needs.
These Partnerships will purchase (or long-lease) and activate buildings, for example through a not-for-profit entity such as a Community Development Trust (CDT).
Mark Robinson (Former Chair of High Street Task Force and Co-founder of asset manager Ellandi – recently acquired by NewRiver) said:
“One of the main blockers to reviving our high streets is the lack of meaningful cross-sector collaboration. That’s why we need to scale up tried-and-tested practical approaches, like Local Property Partnerships. The time is now for empowering our community leaders to drive this change; they hold the key to turning underused buildings into vibrant spaces that serve local needs.”
Existing national programmes being accessed to regenerate buildings and ‘level up’ are typically either capital funds or are predominantly for capital spend. They can be used to acquire, retrofit and refurbish buildings and the public realm – but communities first need to be organised to benefit from and draw down such capital funds.
This pilot programme ensures local people can get prepared, for example with revenue funding for core salaries to do local partnership development, creative ideas testing, business planning and feasibility studies.
Andy Haddon, founder of Big River Bakery in Newcastle, said:
“In neighbourhoods like Byker, there are plenty of empty buildings crying out to be restored and revived – while lots of community leaders and organisations need spaces but can’t get into them. This pilot gets us working together and organised, so we can create a network of interconnected high street hubs for local food, arts, start-up businesses, community events, and more.”
Kisha Bradley, founder of Brightbox in Sheffield, said:
“We’re excited to be part of a community of sharing and collective action, changing how high streets, buildings, and land are occupied. By moving spaces into community ownership, we aim to equip people with future-ready skills and support the aspirations of the Darnall community.
Through shifting power to overlooked Black and Brown communities, local people can shape what’s on our doorstep to benefit the neighbourhood where we live and work.”
Steve Sayers, CEO at Windmill Hill City Farm, said:
“We’re absolutely delighted that Bedminster is part of this national programme. Over the next three years we’ll be building a strong and diverse partnership with other local organisations that can put community into the heart of our high street, deliver engaging places for local people and help to regenerate the neighbourhood around East Street.”
The pilot is inspired by pioneers like Hastings Commons, Stour Trust, SAFE Regen, Civic Square, Nudge Community Builders, Makespace Oxford and more. It aims to lay the groundwork for a larger follow-on funding programme, and catalyse England-wide adoption of this approach to unlocking buildings for local benefit – at scale.
The neighbourhoods and local partners so far involved include:
Darnall Ward, Sheffield: Brightbox, supported by Sheffield City Council, and together with a collective of local organisations, want to change the way high streets, buildings, and land are occupied within under-resourced and overlooked communities.
Byker and surrounding areas, Newcastle: Big River Bakery, supported by Newcastle City Council and local partners, are working to create a network of interconnected high street spaces for food, arts, start-up businesses.
Bedminster, Bristol: Bedminster Property Partnership (a group of community organisations and local businesses, supported by Bristol City Council) is setting a new tone for how properties are owned, managed and used on and around East Street.
Knowsley and St Helens, Liverpool City Region: Kindred LCR and partners are re-imagining buildings into hubs for socially-trading organisations.
Wandsworth Town, London: Wandsworth Town Property Partnership (a group of community organisers, council officers and asset owners from Wandsworth Town) is working to unlock buildings for impactful ideas and businesses that promote affordability, sustainability, and community cohesion.
This programme is being supported by national partners Architectural Heritage Fund, Power to Change and Social Investment Business.
Architectural Heritage Fund’s (AHF) Chief Executive, Matthew McKeague, said:
“Our towns and high streets need enterprising ways to revitalise buildings, old and new. This new pilot programme is one that will help communities create vibrant local economies through a range of approaches, including learning lessons from the AHF’s own Heritage Development Trust (HDT) programme. We’re really looking forward to sharing the learning between the Local Property Partnerships and the HDTs.”
Notes to Editors
Contact: helena@platformplaces.com
Additional quotes
Local resident and co-lead of Wandsworth Town’s Property Partnership, Brendan Conway, said:
“Wandsworth Town’s built environment is transforming. Our research shows that 95% of commercial units are privately owned by 89 different entities. This traditional ownership model allows for speculative land banking, unaffordable rents, and prolonged vacancies. These are barriers to our collective goal of a fair transition and a comprehensive, cooperative strategy for inclusive growth and sustainable communities. Partnership models founded on mutuality, trust and relationships and a clear understanding of the value exchange can re-calibrate these structural imbalances.”
North East Mayor Kim McGuinness said:
“Local people and local businesses often know what’s best for their communities and high streets, when it comes to bringing buildings back to life, winning back shoppers and creating places to be proud of. I have made reviving our high streets one of my priorities because I know that’s about more than just the local economy – they should be home to community hubs and a focal-points for families and older people alike. As such I welcome this fantastic opportunity for people in Byker and the wider east end of Newcastle.”
Michelle Percy, Director of Investment and Growth, Newcastle City Council, said:
“This is a fantastic opportunity to build on the work of the Council’s Newcastle East High Streets Project which started in 2022 and has so far brought 6 empty properties back in to use in the east end of the city. We look forward to working with national and local partners to establish a Local Property Partnership in Byker to further unlock spaces that better serve the needs of the local community and contribute to the wider transformation of the area.”
Nick Hartley, Byker councillor, said:
"A frequent talking point for Byker residents is the challenges faced by Shields Road and surrounding areas. Not only would Stottie Power bring a sense of renewal and purpose to this part of Byker, but it would also provide the training, opportunities and hope that many are asking for.”
About Platform Places
Platform Places is on a mission to unlock town centre buildings for amazing ideas that help us live affordably, sustainably and together.
We convene councils, community leaders and asset owners to create Local Property Partnerships in UK towns and cities — a tried-and-tested process that brings buildings into community use or ownership, for local benefit, for the long term. We support these Partnerships with access to funding, technical expertise and networks.
Platform Places is a social enterprise co-designed in dialogue with 25 leaders from communities, councils and asset owners across the UK. Co-founding partners include High Streets Task Force, Power to Change, British Property Federation, New Local, Radix and Shoosmiths.
Our deeper intention is to localise and democratise who owns, controls and transforms town centre and neighbourhood buildings, so that communities can:
design spaces to meet local needs – whether affordable space for arts, music, healthcare, local food, housing, nature connection, reuse & repair, childcare etc
retain and reinvest the wealth generated by these buildings.
www.platformplaces.com @platformplaces
About The National Lottery Community Fund
We are the largest non-statutory community funder in the UK – community is at the heart of our purpose, vision and name.
We support activities that create resilient communities that are more inclusive and environmentally sustainable and that will strengthen society and improve lives across the UK.
We’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and to work closely with Government to distribute vital grants and funding from key Government programmes and initiatives.
As well as responding to what communities tell us is important to them, our funding is focused on four key missions, supporting communities to:
1. Come together
2. Be environmentally sustainable
3. Help children and young people thrive
4. Enable people to live healthier lives.
Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, we distribute around £500 million a year through 10,000+ grants and plan to invest over £4bn of funding into communities by 2030. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life.
National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes throughout the UK. Since The National Lottery began in 1994, £47 billion has been raised and more than 670,000 individual grants have been made across the UK - the equivalent of around 240 National Lottery grants in every UK postcode district.
