Today it was announced that the Community Development Foundation (CDF) led consortium has been confirmed by the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) as the body which will set up and manage the new independent Big Local Trust which will distribute BIG’s £200m  endowment to 150 local areas over the next 10 years. The consortium has been working on the business plan for the new Trust since the start of this year. The NANM is pleased to be part of that consortium and our role now will be to help deliver learning and knowledge sharing activity for local communities.

In developing the business plan we have lucky enough to meet some of the first 50 BIG Local areas as they discussed their initial plans. Local people are clearly enthused by the programme and the opportunities to create change in their local area, and we have also re-connected with many familiar neighbourhood management faces in Huntingdonshire, South Bermondsey and elsewhere who are translating the lessons from previous neighbourhood initiatives in this new programme. Over the next couple of months we’ll be meeting again with the first 50 Big Local areas, with our learning programme due to start in the Autumn. The programme will include site visits to Big Local areas and other area-based initiatives, action learning and thematic workshops, and will seek to  support local areas in generating momentum at the outset; and, encourage a spirit of internal challenge within the programme and critical thinking.

We will release more details and information soon.