A person holds a phone while others stand nearby on a city street. A sign reads "Why the time has come for a High Street Property Holding Vehicle - New blog" with a "Power to Change" logo in the corner.

✍️ High streets are the heart of our communities, but many are stuck in decline. We need a fast, agile way for communities to secure empty buildings. @nickplumb.bsky.social explains why a High Street Property Holding Vehicle could be the tool to fix a broken market.
Read now 👉 https://bit.ly/4c5dJ3S

Good pamphlet this. In particular, this point from @jeevunsandher.bsky.social, as he makes the case for a community led economy.

Civic assets are economic assets.

That's why we need policy attention on community ownership, civic high streets.

High streets revived and children given safe places to play New initiative will support local areas to reimagine and revive their struggling high streets

Over the weekend the government announced £301m(!) for High Streets Innovation Partnerships to help communities 'reimagine and revive struggling high streets and make them fit for the future':
www.gov.uk/government/n...

"the truth is that community solutions still face too many barriers to getting off the ground.

“We can change that by standing up for our values to help fix the housing crisis by bringing communities together to own, manage and shape the housing they want to see."

A big day for us @powertochange.org.uk as we publish our 5-year strategy.

It sets out the change we want to see in the world and our role - alongside community business and other partners - in bringing this into being.

Do have a read.

More MPs on the Labour benches putting forward a vision for 21st century civic high streets. @connornaismithmp.bsky.social

labourlist.org/2026/03/labo...

"This goes out to the 706 sensible voters in Gorton and Denton. The other 36,908 of you are idiots"

The exterior of Union Corner, Nudge’s first site with a bright facade bringing colour back to the high street. Hannah, co-director of Nudge (in a red coat and blue hat) is talking to an assembled group of people about the site.

Had a great day visiting the fantastic @nudgecommunity.bsky.social with civil servants and @powertochange.org.uk to discuss all things community ownership and high street regeneration. Come for a look around… (🧵)

Pleased that the Business and Trade Committee has picked up on two of the recommendations in the Shuttered Front work we @powertochange.org.uk did last year.

What we’re learning from High Street Rental Auctions – and how they can catalyse change - Power to Change One of our five community-led high street innovators - Make CIC - creates affordable, creative and maker spaces rooted in local need. In this blog in a mini ...

📝 New blog out today from Louise Cross at Make CIC, sharing learning from testing High Street Rental Auctions in Birkenhead. Key insight: HSRAs can catalyse change but are just one tool among many. Real progress involves relationships, community insight & practical support. Read now: buff.ly/P3wxuvY

Ignore the naysayers: Labour’s Local Power Plan shows you can have your cake and eat it Being a Labour MP in 2026 means both reminding yourself that the road to recovery is a long one, but also constantly asking how we can go faster.

And great articulation of why this matters by @melanieonnmp.bsky.social in @thehousemag.bsky.social www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

Well done to colleagues @commenergyengland.bsky.social @coopparty.party.coop and many other who have pushed this forward. Still work to do to make the most of opportunity, but a day to celebrate that we have the Local Power Plan with us.

Just back from the launch of the LPP. Great to hear @sadiqkhanlondon.bsky.social and Ed Miliband extolling the virtues of community energy.

Particularly pleased that Ed emphasised that "this is the glimpse of a new economy". And a government asserting that ownership matters.

Very likely the PM's speech today will be remembered more for his apology on Mandelson but good nonetheless to hear Pride in Place is being extended to 40 more places.

We @powertochange.org.uk will be continuing to bang this drum in the weeks and months to come.

He spoke from Hastings, where Hastings Commons has proven their model of community-led regeneration can renew local buildings, keep money in the local economy.

For Pride in Place to live up to this ambitious vision, it must cement this link between local pride and local growth.

It also felt the PM missed a trick to draw a connection between the economic renewal theme he started with and PiP.

Instead he focused on the important, but ultimately more twee, elements of community work like litter picking.

The PM's speech today was rightly overshadowed by the Mandelson scandal.

But within the speech there was a solid diagnosis of the challenges facing communities, and a recognition of the opportunity to shift power to neighbourhoods via Pride in Place.

BUT...

Have seen this take a lot and really disagree. Gov’t could invest in anchor institutions for towns; build FE colleges in town centres; set up childcare co-ops; retrofit iconic buildings and make them into community gyms, etc. We are more than individual consumers - that’s the point of politics!

Image of October Books in Southampton, overlaid with a label reading 'long read'. Text at the top reads: The government needs a new high streets strategy. Here's what it should do.

There's lots of commentary going around on the state of the high street and what Labour can do to fix it. With the welcome news that the government plans to publish a high streets strategy later in the year, I've written a deeper dive on what that strategy should be about. 🧵https://bit.ly/4q8NH3E

Given recent work, might be of interest to @drjennings.bsky.social @pollymackenzie.bsky.social @jamestplunkett.bsky.social @memckeague.bsky.social @philtinline.bsky.social @joshhalliday.bsky.social @mr.place @sparksstirling.bsky.social @patrickhurley.bsky.social @anooshc.bsky.social

🔹 Ways to stimulate high street economies, from targeted incentives to new local spending models
🔹 Why a new vision is needed - one that embraces mixed uses, civic purpose and community spaces
🔹 The structural reforms needed for long‑term change, including how we tax businesses

2/?

Impeccable timing from @jesscraig.bsky.social, after new High Streets Strategy announced by govt this week,

She's been working on this long read in recent weeks. In it she covers:

🔹 How to tackle empty and neglected buildings that drag down confidence and deter investment

1/?

Returning power to the people: What community empowerment can do for the public and for politics - Power to Change At a time when the government faces enormous pressure to mount a response to the sense of discontent and decline that the public is feeling, giving communit ...

Full briefing here: www.powertochange.org.uk/evidence-and...

This work we @powertochange.org.uk did with @luketryl.bsky.social is a reminder of this potential

Labour risks election wipeout unless it improves Britain’s high streets, study finds Decay of town centres a top issue among voters especially Reform UK supporters and is fuelling resentment against Westminster

🏬 Important coverage today on the state of Britain’s high streets. @drjennings.bsky.social's research finds people who feel their local area has declined are more pessimistic about the future + Reform supporters are most likely to report decline: buff.ly/UcFpKkQ @michaelgoodier.bsky.social

As @memckeague.bsky.social said earlier, this is a good idea. And these conversations are already happening in places up and down the country.

Such as the work of Nudge Community Builders in Plymouth. Their vision is for Union Street to be a place "the whole world loves again".

Good, important work by @drjennings.bsky.social and co.

Reading the piece, striking how often the debate gets confused between the future of retail and the future of our high streets. Government's High Street Strategy, announced yesterday, seems to be focused on the former, not the latter.

This is a good idea. Need to look at places like Dumfries that have been having this conversation a while and how they (and others) are approaching it www.bbc.co.uk/news/article....

Because the issues are structural - and fundamentally due to changes in *our* behaviour (not just due to decisions taken by governments), there is an argument for a 'national conversation' about what to do on high streets, engaging citizens on what the town centres of the future should look like.