Community power in practice: four lessons from the Big Local programme

Community power – the simple idea that people should have a say about the services and opportunities that matter to them, and be able to meaningfully shape the neighbourhoods in which they live – has too often remained closer to ambition than reality.  

Recent decades have undoubtedly seen communities placed under increasing strain. But amongst all the challenges, green shoots of optimism have also poked through. While March 2026 will mark the end of the Big Local programme, others, like the government’s flagship Pride in Place programme, are just getting started. What these two initiatives share is a welcome and much-needed focus on building stronger local relationships, creating thriving places, and helping communities to take back control of their own lives and areas.  

As we approach our planned organisational closure in early 2027, Local Trust is increasingly reflecting on the legacy of Big Local, how evidence and insight from the programme have helped shape thinking around practice in communities and neighbourhoods, and some of the lessons we’ve learned along the way. We hope these provide a useful starting point from which others can build.  

Lesson one: Resident-led funding works

In contrast to top-down, time-limited and project-led funding, Big Local was created to be different from other programmes. Perhaps most importantly, Big Local is resident-led. This means it works directly through individuals living, working, studying and playing in neighbourhoods of roughly 8,000 people, rather than organisations. The funding is also non-prescriptive – communities have been able to spend on their own terms and in their own time, on the projects they have judged as most important.  

Working collectively, resident-led Big Local partnerships have revived community centres and hubs, supported families through emergencies or crisis, created welcoming green spaces and fostered greater inclusion so that each person feels they belong. Change in Big Local areas has been created by communities themselves, rather than Local Trust as the funder.  

Given time and given the right structures and the right ingredients, you can make big changes.”

Lesson two: Patience and long-term commitment are essential

The long-term nature of Big Local funding has provided certainty and continuity to 150 areas over 10 to 15 years. Doing so has enabled people to take risks, make mistakes, learn and grow. It has also provided space for communities to resolve disagreements and overcome challenges to work towards shared solutions.  

Over time, long-term funding supports communities to move beyond what people say they want, to deeper discussions about what they might need. It creates strong connections and incredible levels of engagement and commitment, providing the space for the sorts of innovative action that conventional funding sometimes struggles to achieve.  

As one individual involved with Big Local reflected: “…what Big Local isn’t is a firework display. It’s not something instantaneous. A lot of things take time and that’s what we’ve found. But given time and given the right structures and the right ingredients, you can make big changes.”  

People sitting at tables in Cornubia community hub. Photo credit: Charlotte Sams

Lesson three: Resident-led funding needs to be accompanied by the right support

Big Local has been accompanied by flexible, responsive support to help communities build the confidence and capability to make the most of the funding and opportunities available to them. This doesn’t always need to be technical or specialist – peer support has been particularly valued by Big Local partnership members as a source of both of inspiration and practical hints and tips. 

In 2019, Local Trust developed the Community Leadership Academy CLA to identify and support emerging and established leaders in Big Local areas. The CLA increased the number of capable and engaged people at a local level, nurturing and retaining some of the most talented community leaders and advancing collective understanding of the support needed for individuals and groups leading change in their areas. This capacity–building is part of the wider people-based legacy that Big Local leaves behind. It is also what has helped motivate more than 6,000 people – many of whom had never volunteered before – to become more involved in their communities over the course of the programme.

Lesson four: Spaces matter, but community power starts with relationships 

In the early years of delivering Big Local, Local Trust observed that areas with existing social infrastructure were able to hit the ground running, delivering impactful, community-led solutions at pace. In areas without it, building social infrastructure from scratch took up much of their grant award and time as part of the programme.  

But it’s not just bricks and mortar spaces that help kickstart neighbourhood-level action. Connectivity – from virtual networks, to transport infrastructure – is also fundamental for people to access community spaces or get involved in a locally led group. It is the subsequent relationships of trust, mutual support and cooperation formed between people that truly determine whether a place can respond to challenges and sustain long-term growth. This is what led to our definition of social infrastructure and foundational research into ‘left behind’ or doubly disadvantaged neighbourhoods.  

Future of community-led change: The Big Local story doesn’t end here 

While the programme might be formally winding down, this isn’t the end of the Big Local story. More than 100 Big Local legacy organisations will be taking the work of local residents forward, well into the future. The Centre for Collaboration in Community Connectedness and 3ni, the national network for neighbourhood improvement, will be continuing research, analysis and activities that seek to progress understanding of how to drive change in the places need it most. We look forward to seeing what comes next.