When Ride Sheffield began a crowdfunding campaign for a new mountain biking trail, local riders and businesses got involved. Now the trail has opened, and I interviewed professional mountain bikers Annie Last and Steve Peat for my radio show. Plus news about the impact of the budget on small businesses.
Crowdfunded bike trail: Annie Last and Steve Peat interviews. Plus: budget impact on small business
Filed Under: Fun, Interviews, Policy Tagged With: Andrew Throssell, Annie Last, Budget, Business, Cotic Bikes, crowdfunding, Cy Turner, Debbie Matthews, GO Outdoors, interview, Joe Bowman, Jon Dallow, Lady Cannings, Mountain Biking, Ride Sheffield, sheffield, Sheffield City Council, social policy, Steve Peat
Businesses that put their customers into poverty make the country poorer too – and stifle the UK’s economic recovery
[I wrote this blog for my client, the Community Development Finance Association, to appear on the BusinessZone website.] A recent feature in Management Today, “Cashing in on the Poor,” asked whether businesses are transgressing a code of ethics by exploiting the financially vulnerable. Payday loan companies, cheque cashing businesses and pawnbrokers are all thriving businesses […]
Filed Under: Policy Tagged With: CDFA, social policy
Guardian discussion on community led planning
On Thursday I participated (on behalf of Action for Market Towns) in a live online discussion hosted by the Guardian about Community-led planning. Other panellists came from private sector and social enterprise consultancies, Universities, national campaigning organisations and the public sector. After a lively discussion and lots of questions from website users, the Guardian’s Kate […]
Filed Under: Policy, Regeneration Tagged With: AMT, media coverage, social policy, towns and high streets
Community finance is JUST finance
Imagine borrowing £100 – but then paying back £50 per month for 6 months to pay off the loan. After 6 months, you’ll have handed back interest of £200 in addition to the original £100 of capital – in other words, the loan will have cost you a shocking 534% APR. Certainly this isn’t a […]
Filed Under: Policy, Project Management, Social Enterprise, Uncategorized Tagged With: CDFA, films, social enterprise, social policy
Ranting about riots
Whoulda-thought-it? Cast your media prejudices aside, because Peter Oborne has written one of the best pieces about the riots affecting London, Manchester, Birmingham and other cities. It was published in yesterday’s Telegraph. But I bet I’m not the only one to be getting quite fed up of the knee jerk political opportunism in much of […]
Filed Under: Media, Policy, Regeneration Tagged With: social policy, young people
