Thread by @karlwilding

1/ Hmmm. How to design a fund to support 'left behind' communities. Lots of debate about this today (assuming of course that is the purpose of the fund). Funnily enough, civil society has been thinking about this for a bit. A good time to reflect in a thread, methinks.

£1.6bn isn't insignificant. In fact, it's almost as much as the £2bn in the next tranche of dormant assets that the government's own report from 2017 thinks might be available. More on that here if you are interested: bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi… We could change communities with that.

There's some frustration with today's £1.6bn announcement though. I'll sidestep the 'bribery' accusations and the 'drop in the ocean' type comments. Any money for these communities is welcome.

I'm more interested in how the fund will be managed/distributed for maximum impact.

From what I've read, it seems very top down: national needs-based formula; central management and control (eg bidding to a central fund); and, of course, those bastions of localism, the LEPs.

I spy HM Treasury.

Quite what this will do to involve, or be accountable to, local people, we don't yet know. LEPs on the whole do not have a good rep for involving civil society, I know that much.
@bobthrust nailed this issue a couple of days ago in a great post: stirtoaction.com/article/lookin…

@BobThrust 6/ Many of us across civil society - @LocalTrust @locality
@UKCF_tweets - think that there is a better way.

If you have sums like £1.6bn for left behind communities, we think that you can make the biggest difference by putting those communities in control. Not Whitehall.

7/ We've come together as the Community Wealth Fund Alliance - more here: localtrust.org.uk/library/resear… In short, we want to give local people more control over their own future. And give them the resources to help them to do that.

8/ How would we distribute £1.6bn to left behind communities? Or £2bn?
Endow local communities, including through their own grant making bodies like Community Foundations. Leave them to decide needs, outputs, outcomes and impacts. Remove central govt dictat.

9/ We would also bring to bear the power of philanthropy: we think philanthropists will match these funds for the places they are interested in. It's been done before, successfully - eg see manchestercommunitycentral.org/endowment-matc…

10/ Here's a starter for 10 on a better way of doing this:

11/ And finally, the worked up proposals for a Community Wealth Fund are here: localtrust.org.uk/assets/downloa…

There is a better way to spend £1.6bn if we want to help communities, left behind or otherwise. Clue: involve civil society.