From policy to pavement: neighbourhoods, policy and the future of community business
10.15-11.15am
Room: G9B
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This session will explore how the UK government’s emerging policy agendas on neighbourhoods and community business are shaping the environment for community-led enterprise. The prospectus for the Plan for Neighbourhoods argues that the funding it will provide to 75 of the UK’s most “kept-behind” areas will help revitalise them and fight deprivation by zeroing in on three goals: thriving places, stronger communities, and taking back control. What can we learn from the approaches already being taken in places to build a better ecosystem for community businesses and what should the government do next to ensure that this kind of change is accessible to everyone, everywhere?
We’ll hear from voices across the community business ecosystem – practitioners, local authorities and policy experts. With a focus on turning national rhetoric into local reality, the session will invite discussion on how community businesses and the councils and other anchor institutions that support them can shape and influence the agenda, not just respond to it – moving from policy statements to real change on our pavements.
Speakers
Sarah Evans (Chair) is CLES’s Associate Director for Regional Economies and leads on our work in Wales. She joined CLES in December 2024, having previously worked for Cwmpas where she led the development of the consultancy activities, in the fields of local economic development, social value, social care and learning and development. Sarah previously worked within local government, as well as academia, where she led European social enterprise development projects in topics such as the internationalisation of social enterprise and the role of minority ethnic women in the social business sector. Sarah holds a PhD in local government management from the University of Wales.
Jessica Craig is Policy Manager (Research) at Power to Change, where she works with colleagues and external partners to deliver policy-relevant research and develop well informed policy ideas that support community businesses to thrive. She helps to build strong relationships with central and local government to put community business on the policy agenda.
Lucy Montague is a Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University and is widely considered a leading authority on high streets. Known for her influential book High Street: How Our Town Centres Can Bounce Back from the Retail Crisis and for the groundbreaking research project Tales from the High Street. In 2024 she was appointed Parliamentary Special Advisor to the House of Lords Built Environment Select Committee for their inquiry into the future of high streets, culminating in the report High Streets: Life Beyond Retail?
Sean Anstee has been the Director of Operations for the Devon and Torbay Combined County Authority since the authority was established in February 2025. He was formerly the Leader of the Council on Trafford council and between 2008 and 2021 was a Councillor for the Bowdon ward. Sean is also executive director at Municipal Partners, Chairman of Trafford Housing Trust and a Non-Executive Director of London & Quadrant. He was appointed a CBE in the 2019 New Year Honours list for services to local government.
Gary Brown is the Chief Officer of Caia Park Partnership. He is a seasoned leader in community development and regeneration, with a rich background spanning policy, practice and leadership roles across both the public and third sectors. At Caia Park Partnership – one of Wales’ foremost neighbourhood anchor organisations – he has helped to enable a range of community-led initiatives that tackle poverty, health inequalities and wellbeing. Gary champions the role of local place-based third sector organisations as agents of change that can help foster community vibrancy, ownership, cohesion and resilience.
Seán McCabe is Head of Climate Justice and Sustainability Bohemian Football Club – World football’s first Climate Justice Officer. He has nearly 20 years of experience spanning diverse sectors and geographies, from Dublin to Bermuda, India, and Sierra Leone, which has shaped his understanding of inclusive climate action and sustainable development. As Head of Climate Justice and Sustainability at Bohemian Football Club, he has grown a grassroots initiative from a single volunteer in 2021 to a team of six, delivering co-operative, community-driven climate solutions that also address social inequality.
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