Over the last 6 months or so draft versions of our forward thinking development plan have been shared with a range of colleagues and the version distributed to our partnership board on Friday 28th May is now available.

towards_2012_v_28_may_2010_summary Click to preview, right click to download

This aspirational but practical document runs to just 19 pages plus appendices and has 6 sections:

1. Executive Summary
2. Introduction and Strategy
3. The Townhill Context
4. Progress in Townhill
5. Why is the Hill deprived?
6. Potential for Action

• The Phoenix Community Enterprise Centre was given to our community development trust in 2001 with a dual challenge to generate our own funds and meet community needs.
• The centre is a vibrant focal point for all kinds of activity and 8 years after opening we hit the cumulative trading income level of £1 million - what a good return on investment in such a short space of time!
• Capital grants for facilities improvement in 2010 and 2011 will see the generation of higher income levels through trading activities with a healthy annual surplus for reinvestment in the community
• With reinvigorated partnership working arrangements inspired by a very specific focus on clearly defined deprivation targets, we will see a reduction in the pressure on the public purse.

Economic note 1: If the 157 Communities First partnerships in Wales generated £250,000 of their own income this would create a revenue stream of £39 million. If the 10% most deprived communities in England followed suit this would amount to £800 million per annum.

Economic note 2: If benefit claimants could be reduced by 10% year on year in 5 years this would represent a saving of around £7 million for Townhill. The same thinking applied to all Communities First areas in Wales would bring savings of over £ 1 billion. For the UK this could amount to around £20 billion.

Economic note 3: How big would the potential savings be if we did the same back of an envelope exercise for all areas of public service delivery?

Times are tough but there are potentials to be explored together.