GM Live Well: Reimagining Neighbourhood Regeneration

On Wednesday 26 November, Ellie and Anne from MPCAN; Lina from Wythenshawe Central Network and Sophie from CLASS presented as part of the #GMLiveWell webinar series. Community Savers were delighted to be invited to contribute to this theme because of the aim to explore why community-led placemaking matters, the conditions that enable its success, and inspiring examples of community-led programmes that are already transforming neighbourhoods across Greater Manchester. 

Enabling community-led placemaking

Formal regeneration programmes are rarely community-led. This requires communities to organise from the ground-up so that place-making is driven by communities taking action on what matters most to them. For these efforts to succeed, communities need time and space to form strong and inclusive associational structures; bring diverse local people and groups into dialogue; and form productive and progressive partnerships with public and voluntary sector agencies, authorities and funders/investors who can help them realise their shared vision. Reforms giving more power to communties are also required.

These are the conditions that Community Savers and CLASS work to create. Rather than directing activities, CLASS staff co-create a process with Community Savers leaders that ensures residents, community organisations and faith groups are able to lead local change in partnership with regeneration professionals and public providers. For example, CLASS facilitates peer-learning exchanges and community-led research projects. This approach helps communities build their own evidence on need and learn from others who have taken similar steps.

For community-led placemaking to succeed, residents and communities need time and space to shape priorities and organise collectively, rather than being consulted as individuals. This requires strong infrastructure and networks that enable ongoing dialogue, peer learning, shared organising
and collaborative decision-making.

St Cuthberts Communities Together

“Miles Platting is a place that starts with, and always ends with, community. It’s a place of coffee, crumpets, and conversation where neighbours come together to imagine with hope what their area could become”

Ellie and Anne shared how after a private finance regeneration scheme lost its funding during the 2008
financial crash, plans for new community infrastructure fell through while demolitions and private redevelopments went ahead. In response, the Miles Platting Community Savers group used the Community Savers toolkit to take action. The group started bringing local people, churches and community-led projects together to grieve what had been lost and to create space for collective reflection, helping residents move forward. Building on this shared reflection, they worked with creative urban designers to take practical steps towards rebuilding together. Using large maps of their neighbourhood and participating in walkabouts, they explored their priorities and imagined what they wanted for their local area.

This community-led action has resulted in great success, including £40,000 investment in a new wildlife corridor and the formation of a partnership between Miles Platting Community and Age-friendly Network, St Cuthbert’s Church Council, and the Diocese of Manchester. Together, they are developing a new vision for St Cuthbert’s Church as a vibrant community hub, offering a space for worship, celebration, and connection.

Women leading the way in Wythenshawe

Women are often at the sharpest end of poverty and inequality, while also providing vital support within their communities. Yet, women frequently have limited voice in the decisions that shape their lives and neighbourhoods. Women of Wythenshawe (WoW) was a three year partnership that brought diverse women together to address these challenges.

WoW emerged as a partnership between Wythenshawe Community Housing Group, Community Savers/CLASS, and twelve women-led community organisations in 2022. Together, they built a network of over 40 women leaders, representing a wide range of identities and experiences but united by a shared connection to place and a determination to build a better future for themselves and their families.

Over three years, the solidarity and collective organising led to the creation of Wythenshawe Central Network (WCN). In its first year, WCN has attracted over 130 residents and 22 organisations into membership and gathered priorities from hundreds more. Together, they have shaped a vision for Wythenshawe Civic, which encompasses 600 social rent homes including housing for larger families, older people, and people with learning and physical disabilities; and a participatory governance model for the new Culture Hub that has been proposed for the Town Centre.

When women’s leadership is properly resourced, recognised and grounded in diverse identities and experiences, it becomes a powerful agent of change. By taking action in shaping their communities through a gender-critical lens, women-led networks can challenge place-based structural inequities and drive stronger, fairer, and more inclusive communities that respond to the needs of everyone.

Community Savers are looking forward to the GM Live Well Festival which is taking place between 9-23rd March 2026 and hope to organise a pop up event on exciting alternative models for neighbourhood governance with www.right-here.org. See you there!