Communities fight back against “clone towns”

28 April 2015

With towns across the UK seeing local shops and pubs being turned into flats, supermarkets and other retail outlets by big corporate names, communities across the UK are fighting back to keep these local treasures and prevent the creation of a so-called “clone town”.

This community based action is supported by The Plunkett Foundation, a charity that helps community groups to organise themselves to rescue prized institutions, with the co-operative model at the core of their plans. In total, with the charity’s assistance, 34 pubs are now owned by it customers. The preferred model is for locals to take “community shares” in a pub from which they benefit financially if they are able to guide the pub to profit.

The concept has gained significant attention by communities and has been labelled a success with  a further 34 in the pipeline to follow the same “community shares” based model.