In his comment piece in this Sunday’s Observer, Andy Wightman asks us to “Imagine a Britain of small-scale forestry, of farm forestry, of small- scale rural businesses, of community forests”.[1] Will the Public Bodies Bill and the threat of a “shallow and nihilistic land grab”,[2] make this vision implausible?
If the Public Bodies Bill is passed ministers will have the power to sell off a whole raft of public assets, including the forests. But the flip side is that these new rights make community ownership a legal possibility. Public assets are up for grabs, and there is nothing to stop communities standing up and demanding they be given the chance to manage them.
This sense of optimism underpins the work of The Waterways Project. Our goal is to demonstrate the potential for social enterprise and community asset development on the waterways network.
The Arms Length Body (British Waterways) that currently manages 2,200 miles of the canals and rivers in the UK is about to become a charitable organisation. The new organisation will become the 13th largest charity in the UK with an annual income of ÂŁ223 million and an asset base of ÂŁ379 million.
We see this process of transition as providing an opportunity for communities and social enterprises to play a significant role in the management of their natural infrastructure, whilst gaining access to an asset base on which they could greatly expand the scale and breadth of their activities.
Enabling community management of specific stretches of waterway would allow the new organisation to make considerable cost savings whilst repositioning canals and rivers in the national consciousness. Like the forests of Scandinavia, local waterways could become magnates for small-scale enterprise and community activity. This is not a utopian vision but a reality made possible by the Public Bodies Bill.
The debate surrounding the transfer of assets out of the public sector is dominated by fear and scepticism. The public is sceptical of the government’s intentions and civil society is fearful of the implications for their own organisations. Although community action is needed, the debate needs to be framed in a different way.
Politicians, civil society and the wider public should focus on the once in a lifetime opportunity we are currently faced with to fundamentally reorganise the way our natural infrastructure is managed. Communities should drive policy by demonstrating their capacity and overwhelming enthusiasm for a new way of working, one which sees civil society as partners in the provision of public services.
The Waterways Project is determined to drive this policy agenda throughout government and civil society. We hope that by influencing the shape of the new waterways organisation we will demonstrate the plausibility of such an approach to natural infrastructure management as well as the sheer scale of the broader opportunity.
In order to convince a sceptical public, the government needs to demonstrate that policy measures such as the Public Bodies Bill are not driven solely by a desire to cut costs, but are underpinned by a commitment to empower local communities to take responsibility for their natural assets whilst delivering sustainable development. The Waterways Project is working to ensure that the reality satisfies this vision.
To read Andy Wightman’s original article go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/16/andy-wightman-woodlands-public-ownership.
[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/16/andy-wightman-woodlands-public-ownership
[2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/16/andy-wightman-woodlands-public-ownership
