Relationships with local authorities are crucial to many land-based social enterprises, since local authorities are both major landowners, and major commissioners of land-based services. Many people feel that local authorities are currently failing to make the most out of land-based social enterprises. Our report suggested some steps that both local authorities and social enterprises could take to help address this,  and pledged to continue to explore how to improve the situation.

A key part of this is speaking to organisations who are currently working, or seeking to work, with local authorities. Earlier this year we made a short video highlighting some of the organisations that have been successful in developing good relationships:

Now we want to talk to more organisations to get a richer understand of the types of issues they face. Whether your organisation is an established provider of services to the local authority, or simply starting to think about how you might benefit from developing a relationship, we want to hear from you. We want to hear what’s worked and where you’ve come up against problems. We we will use what you tell us to seek improvements to local authority commissioning, both by speaking to individual authorities and also by feeding into national policy debates.

We also want to hear from local authority staff, commissioners, and councillors about how the issues faced from a local authority perspective.

If you want to share your experiences, or know of anyone we should speak to, please get in touch. Just send an email to hello@sharedassets.org.uk and we can find a time to talk. We look forward to hearing from you!