Maintaining structures and initiatives for the long term

One option is new formal arrangements like community contracts and neighbourhood management.

Read an evaluation of Community Contracts

Neighbourhood Charters:

A neighbourhood charter is a voluntary partnership agreement between a community, the local authority and other service providers. It can lay out details of expected service standards, action plans and/or local priorities with clear commitments from both service providers and local communities in helping to meet these targets. They can be shaped through participation, and often the element of engaging the community is as important as the end charter. Creating a charter can improve efficiency of, and satisfaction with, services, help clarify the role of different partners and service providers, and build local trust and community capacity.

Read more about Neighbourhood Charters

Neighbourhood management:

Long term management arrangements of any new development, no matter what the tenure mix, need to be determined before residents move in. For large scale new developments there is persuasive evidence that a local management team should be provided. For smaller scale developments, there are other approaches, involving a lighter touch that would be more cost effective.

Alternatively the management of a new development can sometimes be covered within the existing arrangements that apply to surrounding areas - with the added value of reinforcing the external links between the new community and other areas. Good management can be a pre-condition to other initiatives that brings new communities together (conversely bad management can act as a catalyst for community action). Not only does local management prevent a downward spiral, it contributes directly to the infrastructure through which local communities can exercise voice and influence.

Institutional arrangements like community contracts or neighbourhood management can be very effective but rely on funding and support from key agencies to make them work.

Find out about the impact of Neighbourhood Management

Find out about the costs and benefits of Neighbourhood Management

Models of community ownership, including tenant management organisations and community land trusts have been shown to be effective in the right context.

Read about Tenant Management Organisations

Read about the benefits of Community Land Trusts

Community organisations can be funded by traditional grant funding, through endowments laid down at the early stage of a development (or as a result of housing stock transfer or other significant change). They can also be income generating, through developing social enterprises that trade at surplus. These could include cafés, gardening businesses, building and maintenance, shops and business of all kinds from local corner shops through to hairdressers.

There is increasing interest in community investment - different approaches to issuing shares to enable community agencies to expand. This could include selling shares to service users or more conventional share offers.

Find out about Community Shares

There has been considerable interest in recent years in asset transfer - transferring the ownership of public assets to community ownership. But the benefits of this approach are largely unevidenced.

Read more about the benefits of asset transfer to local communities