The Role of Community Energy in a Just Transition to Net Zero

Plunkett UK: 2024 Impact Report

Published:

2023 witnessed the largest growth in the number of community-owned businesses since the pandemic. Plunkett UK’s 2024 Impact Report highlights the state of the sector and the added value of their support, with statistics and case studies from each of their five impact areas.

Community ownership: A better form of business 2024

Published: 2024

‘A Better Form of Business’ is a series of research reports on community-owned businesses that have been completed annually by the Plunkett Foundation since 2011. The reports offer evidence on the needs and health of the community business sector, trends in growth and services, and the important social, economic and environmental impact tha…

Our journey to net zero: Understanding household and community participation in the UK’s transition to a greener future

Published: 2024

Our new report warns the government’s existing net zero transition policies are likely to make the poor poorer, and push struggling communities further into deprivation and exclusion.

This research – which was funded by the Nuffield Foundation and developed with the University of Leeds, University of York and Trinity College Dublin – f…

Community Ownership: A better form of business 2023

Published: 2023

‘A Better Form of Business’ is a series of research reports on community-owned businesses that have been completed annually by the Plunkett Foundation since 2011. The reports offer evidence on the needs and health of the community business sector, trends in growth and services, and the important social, economic and environmental impact tha…

Conceptualising socially inclusive environmental policy: a just transition to Net Zero

Published: 2023

The policy area addressing the climate crisis in the UK, ‘Net Zero’, will affect many aspects of people’s everyday life. Given that policy builds from where we are now, which for some (post austerity, and mid cost of living crisis) means in financial crisis, there is work to be done in enabling a socially inclusive Net Zero. In this artic…

Community Businesses and Climate Action

Published: 2023

Over the past six years, Power to Change has become one of the largest funders of community climate action in England, with over £25m of funding and investment supporting climate action in more than 450 community businesses.

To ensure Power to Change’s work is underpinned by robust evidence, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) …

Young People in Community Business: A legacy report from the #iwill programme

Published: 2023

This report is the legacy of the #iwill project, funded by the Dulverton Trust in partnership with the #iwill Fund (a joint investment between The National Lottery Community Fund and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport), and delivered by the Plunkett Foundation from 2022 to 2023 – to help community businesses engage, involve and …

Five years of Empowering Places: Evaluation report

Published: 2023

Empowering Places was designed by Power to Change as an experiment to explore what happens when local anchor organisations are supported to catalyse community businesses in deprived communities in England.

This evaluation report is the final in a series of six reports and several short
ethnographic films. The interim reports took a formative a…

Evaluation report: Next Generation peer mentoring scheme

Published: 2023

This report was prepared by CAG Consultants on behalf of Power to Change as part of the evaluation of the Next Generation programme. It provides an evaluation of the peer mentoring scheme that was implemented as part of the Next Generation programme, with a view to informing future peer mentoring initiatives in the community energy sector.