Can community-led development build greater community wealth?

According to a new joint report from CLES (the national organisation for local economies) and URBED (Urbanism Environment Design), land and property development drives the extraction of wealth from local economies across the UK. The report critically analyses the dynamics in local land development markets and explores alternative models of development that build greater community wealth and the transfer of community assets.The report ‘Community-led development: a roadmap for asset ownership’ finds that community-led approaches to workspace, housing and high streets can support a levelling up of our places and that there is an opportunity to develop the practice of community asset transfer (CAT) to support the growth of these models. This report seeks to provide a roadmap towards a more supportive, less fragmented framework for CAT and recommends reforms to the structures of planning and finance that have facilitated the financialisaton of our property markets.

Read the report and find out more about our economic justice programme.