Futures Forum: "Helping to drive and deliver many localist actions such as the community rights, the general power of competence and neighbourhood planning."
This has been reinforced over time, most recently by the Local Govt Minister:
Futures Forum: LOCALISM restated >>> "Power should be decentralised down to the lowest appropriate level - to councils, to community groups and to individual taxpayers"
And it has been challenged:
Futures Forum: Civic Voice: "Localism for Real": manifesto launch
Futures Forum: "Claims for 'localism' are a fiction from a Tom Sharpe novel" - Growing disquiet across the West Country
The notion of 'localism' has been conflated with that of 'the big society':
Futures Forum: Localism and the future of the 'Big Society'
Others would say 'localism' is all about local people doing it for themselves:
Futures Forum: Community Land Trusts and affordable housing: part two: taking control
Futures Forum: Neighborhood Power: The New Localism
Futures Forum: Sustainable Communities
... because central government seems to find it difficult to let go:
Futures Forum: W(h)ither "localism"?
Futures Forum: "An appetite for stronger local democratic institutions"
Futures Forum: Localism: The uses and abuses of power: "No politician willingly surrenders control downwards."
Another, more 'local' take on this is 'localising' the economy:
Futures Forum: Michael Shuman and economic localisation: "Those counties with the highest density of local and small business were those that actually had the highest level of per capita income growth and were doing the best job of reducing poverty."
Futures Forum: Relocalisation
Futures Forum: "Promoting local economic activity, local services and facilities, social and community wellbeing and environmental protection"
One such example is coming out of the Midlands:
Futures Forum: Localism and local prosperity
Localising Prosperity
- by mainstreaming community economic development
Do you want to maximise the benefits of economic development in your area?
Do you want a socially inclusive, redistributive, prosperous economy?
This is about localising prosperity for everyone – by integrating community economic development into everyday business. About understanding and building upon an area’s existing strengths so that it can develop from within – maximising the local economic and social benefits for all.
It’s a private, public, social and for-profit agenda. It can be used within public bodies, community groups, private businesses, local enterprise partnerships, Chambers, Business Improvement Districts, thinktanks and the voluntary sector -anyone who wants to play a role in making places better and sharing prosperity.
How it works
There is a “virtuous circle” relationship between more locally owned businesses, more local power, better social outcomes and greater prosperity:
LWM’s research concluded that higher levels of small business and local ownership lead to higher levels of economic success, job creation, social inclusion, civic engagement, wellbeing and local distinctiveness, and this virtuous circle explains how.
So we can realise local economic power rather than handing it to ‘absentee landlords’ i.e. distant private and public sector owners with little understanding of the local area.
Is this about community or about business and the economy?
Both, inseparably. This is not about small community projects but about maximising the local benefits of all economic development.
Rather than economic development being “done to” an area, local people lead and participate as owners, investors, purchasers and wealth creators.
In summary
This approach builds on an area’s existing strengths to maximise the local economic and social benefits for all, including the potential to create:
- More integrated economies where partners from social, private and public sectors work together
- Local economies which are more diverse and competitive
- Improved levels of resilience within local economies making them less vulnerable to external change
- Higher levels of local job creation particularly in peripheral and disadvantaged areas
- Greater levels of social inclusion
- Stronger local governance with more civic engagement
- Retention of local distinctiveness
- Better health outcomes.
How it works | Localising Prosperity
The project is based in the West Midlands:
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Localise West MidlandsWho we are
Localise West Midlands promotes local supply chains, money flow, ownership and decision-making for a more just and sustainable economy. We are a thinktank, campaign group and consultancy.
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See also:
Why mainstream community economic development? Because it works. : REconomy
Localisation: An Economics of Personal and Ecological Wellbeing | International Permaculture Day
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