What is the recipe for big, local change?

Over the last 15 years, Big Local has demonstrated a new approach to neighbourhood improvement and regeneration. In this blog, our deputy CEO, Jon Fox, shares what it takes to make lasting local change.

Few people would describe £1m as small change. But how to understand, describe and even measure the changes that sum was able to catalyse in 150 very different communities across England can feel overwhelming.

It’s perhaps helpful to boil down to the basics. What were the core ingredients of the Big Local programme? And is there a critical step in the recipe that reliably delivers positive change?

People own what they help create

In the early 2010s, The National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF) in England adopted the slogan ‘People Powered Change’ for their funding approach and values. At the time, the recently established Big Local programme (set up with the largest endowment made by TNLCF) seemed to capture this spirit – on steroids.

‘People’ would loom large in any wordcloud from articles and research about the programme. People are front and centre of the critical success factors identified by the Our Bigger Story research team – including leadership, identity, relationships, skills and capabilities.

As an example, in Scotlands and Bushbury Hill Big Local, local people were – and continue to be – at the heart of their story and legacy. Across two historically divided estates, they engaged residents and mobilised hundreds of volunteers to deliver on the priorities identified for the area.

The garden at The Big Venture Centre. Photo: Local Trust

These priorities reflected familiar themes – prospering families, safer environments and opportunities for children and young people – but the approach to tackling these deep-rooted issues utilised the talents, energy and community spirit of local residents.

How did their approach lead to a recipe for success?

• A level of pride in and ownership of community-based services and activities fed a positive cycle, with many of those benefiting from activities moving to become volunteers.
• Mobilisation during times of crisis – such as the COVID-19 pandemic – was supported by paid staff roles, who worked to ensure both the supply and demand for volunteers increased.
• They attracted further resources to the area through some of their volunteer-led activities, such as the befriending service, Bushbury Buddies, which gained additional funds from TNCLF.
• Starting with solutions by and for local people bypassed a long-standing mistrust in regeneration and renewal initiatives. Big Local was embedded in the assets, networks and relationships that were already in the area.

Through this, Scotlands and Bushbury Hill built a thriving culture of mutual support and volunteering, and a more connected, more civically active and resilient neighbourhood and ‘people infrastructure’.

We could not have achieved anything without local people… Everything we have achieved and plan to address comes back to the level of community participation.”

– Scotlands and Bushbury Hill Big Local partnership member

Changing places and harnessing local assets

Working at a neighbourhood level, the look, feel, assets and infrastructure of Big Local areas were as diverse as their people. Their very fabric was reflected in local history, context and culture, and shaped how residents understood and prioritised positive change.

Lawrence Weston was developed post-war as dormitory housing for industrial Avonmouth, and feels cut off from neighbouring communities. A sense of detachment – being on the ‘forgotten fringes’ of the city – had led to residents developing a community plan prior to Big Local being launched.

Having already established what the community priorities were, when flexible funding from Big Local became available, residents had a headstart and space to think creatively about how this could add value, and looked to the area’s physical landscape and position.

With a collective ambition to improve living standards and conditions, brownfield sites within and around the Big Local area inspired bold ideas. Today, a solar farm and the first community-owned wind turbine stand in Lawrence Weston as monuments to how creative thinking about the assets of a place can be harnessed to deliver longer term ‘upstream’ solutions.

The wind turbine at Ambition Lawrence Weston. Photo: Alan Raposo/Local Trust

In some communities, turbines and solar farms have galvanised community protests. In Lawrence Weston, residents speak with pride about the community ownership of these assets. Providing power to 3,500 homes, they generate income to benefit the community. Residents leading Big Local in the area reflected on the importance of linking these bold projects to the ‘bread and butter’ issue of lowering energy bills – “it was really economic sustainability we were after”.

With increased confidence and assertiveness from these developments, residents were involved in the design of new homes in the area, with six in community ownership. Additionally, they have influenced the allocation policy for social housing to ensure benefit to local people.

Residents have also levered funds for a purpose-built community hub which opened in 2024, providing a vibrant base for sport, training and community activity, including Men in Sheds, which supports isolated residents by engaging them in physical improvements to the area and learning skills along the way.

Change in Big Local was locally rooted – belonging to the people in Big Local areas, supported and reinforced through a distinctive programme design.”

The process you use to get to the future is the future you get

Changes driven by local people, grounded in their neighbourhood, were hallmarks of Big Local. But the programme ‘mechanics’ were also very different to traditional funding programmes, and were integral to the level of ownership, sustainability and legacy of the changes achieved locally.

The shift in power dynamics – putting residents in the lead of planning and delivering of local plans – was significant.

Resident-led groups of decisionmakers were at the heart of this shift, ensuring people who lived, worked and stood to benefit locally drove key decisions about priorities and resources. And through that process, many were able to gain skills, confidence and even optimism for the future. Many went on to take more traditional roles in their communities, including as councillors and trustees of local organisations.

People, places and process – the key ingredients to big, local change

A wide range of Local Trust staff, researchers and policy makers reflected during the programme that you only understood Big Local by visiting at least one local area, seeing the place and talking to the people.

Change in Big Local was locally rooted – belonging to the people in Big Local areas, supported and reinforced through a distinctive programme design. It resulted in widely different approaches across England, and local change that looked and ‘felt’ different to previous approaches to neighbourhood improvement and regeneration.

Echoed in TNLCF’s recent funding strategy, Big Local’s consistent focus on people, place and process put community at the centre of the programme and its legacy – as a starting point, a guiding principle, and an outcome.

To find out more about Big Local, visit our legacy website, which captures 15 years of learning about community-led change. I recommend you start with this article on success in the programme.

Top photo: Heart of Sidley Big Local community festival, June 2024. Credit: Local Trust/Kerrie Wood photography.