So can private companies play a positive role in communities? Half of people polled believe a company can improve its national image through positive work locally, yet 37% think such work is just a stunt to receive good PR.
First-time buyers face an average deposit of roughly £26,500. This is all only made worse by the fact that renting is now actually more expensive than paying a mortgage in all but five UK cities, so actually saving for a deposit is increasingly difficult as well.
The empowerment of communities at a local level - Heseltine syndrome - is what the people want, and it's what the deprived communities in the Midlands and the North truly need. Let's hope this particular political virus is contagious.
Increasingly we are living in world dominated by money and acquisition of material assets. If you are stand against this ideology business the media and politicians are likely to be lining up to persecute you.
As we look back on an event-packed 2012, and realise that the full effect of the Government cuts has yet to be felt, there is a greater need than ever to strengthen and empower local communities across the country. We need to join together to create warmth and humanity in what could be a bleak 2013.
Thousands of people face another day of misery caused by the worst September storm for 30 years. Heavy downpours swelled rivers and flooded 400 hom...
There has perhaps never been a more important time for the voluntary and community sector since 1945 than today. It has a duty to show the necessary strategic vision, imagination, leadership, values, and above all, courage to stand up and make a difference.
Theresa May's plans to replace anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) will just repeat the old failings, creating a back door to custody for people who ...
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Famed Amer...
Bonnie Greer was right: we have multiple identities; we are a multi-cultural, multi-national, multi-racial state. We should be proud of this and follow our centuries-long tradition of appreciating difference and allowing that difference to enrich our own lives.
Until I had my son Isaac, two, I didn't think any kids lived on our street. It was so quiet, the only time we saw our neighbours was when they got home from work or washed their car. But when I brought home my bundle of joy back in November 2008, half the street came out of the woodwork and admitted to having children under eight. So where were they?
When asked, "What will you do if you lose your right to squat?" she responded, "These consultations are governments just going through the motions but they don't mean anything. Getting arrested and being fined, which is what will happen if squatting is made illegal; I don't know what I will do."
Eventually, we can start to engage with spaces that are entirely 'other'. This week a Muslim community worker showed me the mosque that was firebombed, taking me into the side room where the window was forced and explaining the damage that was done.
A new website called Just Left Home looks set to be a hit among university students who have flown the nest and moved to a city for the first time. ...
Reports of the death of the Big Society have been exaggerated. The question is whether it can stay alive.
Not long ago a newsagent on the increasingly dilapidated Hastings seafront told his assistant he might not see out the day. She thought he wasn't feeling well. When, later that afternoon, he pulled down the shutters and handed over her wages she knew better.
The frustration for Dale Farm is that the situation has been allowed to develop to such a disturbing extent. There is clearly something wrong when an individual declares they are willing to die to protect the interest of their community.
Broken Britain. Moral decline. Feral youths. These and many more weary clichés have been trotted out in the past week in an attempt to explain the rioting, looting and vandalism witnessed in cities across the country. And none of them comes even close to doing so.
Today I'm lost for words. I awoke this morning, and what I thought would have been a casual check of my overnight facebook updates turned out to be much, much worse.
Driving the circuitous route from my home to Islington for lunch and a visit to a bookshop, I notice something odd. I have felt the edginess in the air since Saturday night and the first riot in Tottenham, so dangerously close to where I am.
It's been around since the 60s and goes under a number of guises, but Corporate Social Responsibility has probably never had a more tarnished image th...
The new National Planning Policy Framework is a big chance to make Britain better for future generations as well as our own. That is what sustainability is all about. We are determined that the beguiling convenience of the present must not overshadow the needs of the new generation and those that will follow them. There is no reason why growth should mean ugliness. It can - and should - improve our physical environment. Anyone who thinks otherwise should take a tour around our great cities, towns and villages and consider the diminished place that Britain would be if our forebears had been adamant in their opposition to new development.
Seven months is a long time in legislation. It was only last December that the Localism Bill was published amid a fanfare of radical decentralisation, communities "in control" and a "power shift" to those who know their areas best. New radical rights to draw up neighbourhood plans were unveiled and communities pricked up their ears and wondered.
