CLES

🏙️ Supporting small businesses in Welsh town centres

Llywodraeth Cymru / Welsh Government is exploring cutting business rates for smaller shops to help them thrive against online competition and boost high streets. This could benefit around 13,000 businesses: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62vv1nd29no

Our recent work for WG examined how small businesses source property in Welsh town centres. We found challenges like high rents, unclear property ownership and complex financial support processes: https://cles.org.uk/publications/filling-the-gaps/

By addressing these issues and reducing business rates, we can create more vibrant and sustainable town centres for small businesses.

Filling the gaps | CLES The Welsh Government has recognised the importance of town centres in economic, social, and cultural life, committing to policies that address high vacancy rates and support small businesses in accessing town centre properties.

📢 Last week, CLES responded to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the proposed Community Wealth Building Bill - a world-first in legislation.

We welcome this bold step and believe it has the potential to reshape Scotland’s economy around fairness, resilience and local control. But to achieve real transformation, the Bill must prioritise reducing inequality, not just growth - and be backed by resources, guidance and collaboration across all sectors.

Read more about our response and insights from nearly two decades of CWB practice👇
https://cles.org.uk/news/cwb-bill-consultation-our-response/ ‎

A great article here from Max Lacey-Barnacle at the University of Sussex exploring how community wealth building can be a powerful enabler of climate transition, with some great case studies of where it's already happening.

"Already, some initiatives are beginning to generate wealth through the green economy and keeping it in local communities, rather than ownership and profits going to distant corporations."

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How a community-focused vision for net zero can revive local economies Community Wealth Building offers a new model for economic development that can be at the heart of the UK’s transition to net zero

🌾 CLES Open Hour: feeding the future 🌾

Join us for our next Open Hour - an informal, inclusive space to explore big ideas shaping local economies.

📅 Monday 16 June, 12-1pm (online)
💬 Free and open to anyone with an interest in fairer, greener, local food systems.

This month, our Associate Director of Economic Strategy, Julian Boys, will be using the themes of his work on Feeding the Future (cles.org.uk/feedthefuture) as a springboard for a friendly, thought-provoking hour of discussion on:

👉Building resilient local food supply chains
👉Tackling food inequality
👉The role of councils and communities
👉What success looks like and how we measure it

No slides, no pressure, just open conversation. Bring your curiosity and a cuppa.

🔗 Sign up here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cles-open-hour-june-tickets-1375886727239?aff=oddtdtcreator

🚨 Are anchor networks the key to Total Place 2.0?

In 2009, Total Place showed what happens when local public services pool resources, work across silos and focus on what really matters to communities: better outcomes, delivered together.

Now, with our local institutions stretched to breaking point, CLES, alongside partners in the Total Place Network and the Institute for Government is calling for a bold return – a Total Place 2.0.

But here's the thing: across the UK, anchor institutions aren’t waiting for permission. From Leeds to Wigan, Birmingham to Dorset, they're already working together in anchor networks – using their collective power to tackle complex problems, create good local jobs, and build more equitable economies.

In his latest blog, CLES’s Oliver Chan explores how these networks are quietly becoming the delivery engine of a new place-based era – and what it’ll take for government to truly get behind them.

👉 Read it here: https://ow.ly/lXmW50VVthl

Ten years on, is Wales still fighting for the future?

In 2015, the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act captured imaginations with its bold ambition: to make long-term thinking, prevention and collaboration core to public life.

A decade later, in the first of a short blog series, CLES’s Sarah Evans reflects on the Act’s implementation: what’s worked, where we’ve fallen short and why bold leadership is more vital than ever.

📚 Read the blog: Still fighting for the future: 10 years of the Well-being of Future Generations Act in Wales
👉 https://cles.org.uk/blog/still-fighting-for-the-future-of-wales/

Rejecting the government’s prescription for SEZs is risky – but staying within the lines might cost us more.

What’s your take? Let us know in the comments 👇

🧠 Context: Sean Benstead’s new article in The MJ makes the case for places taking the lead in shaping SEZs.

Read here: https://www.themj.co.uk/getting-zone-deliver-local-success

Places aren’t waiting for permission. They’re reshaping SEZs now to deliver social impact.

👇 Here are three local examples that show what’s possible:

1️⃣ West Midlands Combined Authority – retaining business rates to create an impact fund supporting the social economy
2️⃣ Greater Manchester Combined Authority – backing local SMEs to “grow our own”
3️⃣ Liverpool City Region Combined Authority – a fair employment charter tied to freeport business access

These moves align special economic zones with real local priorities – jobs, fairness and community benefit.

Read how: https://www.themj.co.uk/getting-zone-deliver-local-success

🧱 Who really benefits from urban regeneration? And what does it mean when our public spaces are no longer truly public?

CLES’s Leah Millthorne features in this CNBC International report, diving into the rise of privately owned public spaces (POPS) in the UK — and what that means for local economies, land justice and inequality.

🔗 Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-XxLGsYUos

From shopping centres to gated squares, many of the spaces we think of as public are increasingly managed with private profit in mind - limiting access, shaping who belongs and extracting wealth rather than generating it for communities.

In the interview, Leah unpacks how land ownership and regeneration are central to inequality in the UK, and why we need alternative models that centre community voice, social infrastructure and public value. She also reminds us that regeneration doesn’t have to mean displacement. It can mean renewal with and for communities - when we get the ownership and design right.

🌱 Public space matters. So does who it’s for.

Who owns London's (privately owned) public spaces? Were London’s public spaces sold off to private developers? The question led to a heated debate in the U.K.'s capital, but the answer is more nuanced than it...

"With every crisis comes a moment of reflection – a “how did we get here?” Overton window that must be seized before it is too late. I’d like to think that we can use this moment to start a new conversation about the role of the local state with the people who live in our places. A conversation that asks how we need to change to meet the challenges our communities are facing."

Sarah Longlands' latest article for the MJ looks at the impacts of growing political cynicism and argues that, instead of battening down the hatches, local government reorganisation offers an opportunity to open the town hall doors and let the people in.

🔗 https://cles.org.uk/blog/let-the-people-in/