Community Ventures support levelling up agenda across North Midlands

Community Ventures has been commissioned by the Greater Nottingham and Southern Derbyshire LIFTCos to help develop a prioritised pipeline of projects suitable for One Public Estate Funding in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

The work focuses on identifying and considering opportunities for potential capital projects to address inequalities across the key thematic areas of Housing, Education and Health.

Peter Jones, Area Director for Community Ventures said;

“We’re delighted to be involved in this important project that will help to support the levelling up agenda across the North Midlands. The work we’re doing on this national project will combine stakeholder engagement, with hard evidence, to help prioritise those interventions that will have the most impact for the community.

“We’ve utilised data-mapping software, SHAPE, and inputs from local public sector partners to identify hotspots of areas in need in terms of health, education, housing, and social care in high deprivation areas, demographics, populations, and inequalities within specific communities.

“This approach helps us to generate an evidence-based business case for us to support public sector partners local authorities in the prioritisation of services and projects so they can get more from their collective assets. This could be anything from catalysing major service transformations such as health and social care integration or unlocking land for new homes and commercial space.

“We’re bringing key stakeholders together to understand, collectively, how best OPE funding could be used.”

We’ve also been challenged with developing appropriate assessment criteria, relevant to the demographics of the area, and prioritising projects in line with community needs.

The team will be analysing the data extracted from SHAPE, in conjunction with understanding any development or regeneration projects already underway, by hosting workshops and engagement exercises with all relevant parties.

One Public Estate is an established national programme delivered in partnership by the Local Government Association and the Office for Government Property within Cabinet Office. Together, the organisations work with over 300 councils on projects to transform local communities and public services across the country.

The main objective for the One Public Estate is to create economic growth, deliver more integrated, customer-focused services, and generate efficiencies through capital receipts and reduced running costs.