This week in Parliament, as MPs debate the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, a new exhibition is also opening its doors just down the corridor. It's called the Museum of Broken Dreams.
The stories on display are of brilliant community led ideas – from housing projects to wellbeing hubs –that could have transformed people's lives but never had the chance. They weren't stopped by a lack of creativity or expertise but rather by the way power is distributed in this country. Too top-down, too inaccessible and too dismissive of the people closest to the problems and the solutions.
I know this because one of the broken dreams on display is mine.
But despite our track record in delivering large scale projects and our deep roots in the community, the funding streams were locked up for bigger providers. The council prioritised its own plans. And we have been left in limbo, whilst young people in my neighbourhood who could have benefitted from this project are still left without a home.
In Plymouth, where my parents were born and I've worked for the last 22 years, our organisation Nudge Community Builders devised a project to create supported living for young people who were struggling on their own. We planned to transform one of the buildings we owned into 25 affordable apartments, with support for its residents built in. The vision was inspired by a young woman, Lacey, we had employed from a homeless shelter - because as soon as she secured work, she lost her accommodation.
We knew there were countless other young people in the same situation, without family to fall back on and without affordable housing options. Our project would have given them not only stability, but a community to belong to and be supported by – a real chance to thrive, not just survive.
But despite our track record in delivering large scale projects and our deep roots in the community, the funding streams were locked up for bigger providers. The council prioritised its own plans. And we have been left in limbo, whilst young people in my neighbourhood who could have benefitted from this project are still left without a home.
That is why this Bill matters so much. Because communities like mine don't lack ideas. We lack power.
That's why it's no surprise to me that polling by the We're Right Here campaign commissioned earlier this year showed that 84% of people in this country feel they have little or no control over the decisions that affect their local areas. And the majority want to see that changed, with more power handed to communities and local groups.
The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill is real opportunity to do just that. It was great to see a Community Right to Buy included at first reading, that will help local people, like us at Nudge, save much loved spaces in their neighbourhoods. But for the Bill to live up to its name, it must go further.
Thay's why I'm supporting the We're Right Here campaign's calls for the government to introduce:
• A Community Right to Control Investment – giving local people a say over how public money is spent in their neighbourhoods.
• A Community Right to Shape Services – ensuring those who use and understand services most are part of how they're designed and delivered.
• And when it comes to the proposed neighbourhood governance structures, we want to see true power-sharing between councils and communities, underpinned by what we call Community Covenants. These are simple but powerful principles: decisions rooted in neighbourhoods, relationships at the heart, equal partnership between residents and councillors, a role for local groups, community-led leadership, and meaningful method of redress.
None of this is about sidelining councils or diminishing the role of elected representatives. Quite the opposite. Strong communities make for strong local government. When local people are trusted, empowered, and supported to play a meaningful role, councils gain partners who can reach the people and places they often struggle to engage with. Together we can use scarce local resources far more effectively.
For me, this is personal. I've seen first-hand the waste of potential when communities aren't trusted to lead. And I've also seen the magic that happens when they are – when local people take ownership of buildings, create jobs, support each other, and find answers to the challenges on their doorstep.
The Museum of Broken Dreams is a reminder of what we stand to lose if we don't seize this moment. But the Bill being debated this week offers a chance to show what we could gain. This is our chance to fix a system that for too long has shut communities out.
This is not just about preventing more dreams from being broken. It's about giving communities the opportunity to come up with new ones, and giving them the ability to make them a reality.
Find out more about the Museum at www.right-here.org/museum-of-broken-dreams
Hannah Sloggett is co-founder of Nudge Community Builders
