Power to Prosper

How to Build Black Community Wealth: Recap

Power To Prosper — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 23:28:15 +0000

Written by: Kaidon Adams

Last Saturday saw something that our communities have been yearning for. Hood Futures Studio, WAITS and The Legacy Centre of Excellence joined forces to host How to Build Black Community Wealth.

It was a room full of organisers, builders and go-getters, who all came together for one reason. To shed light on how we can build collective ownership and wealth within the Black community.

The premise of the day was simple. Draw back the curtain on the details usually kept from us.

Each conversation covered one of the following themes:

● Land and property

● Business/Legal structures

● Funding and investment

The morning

Between 11:30am and 1pm, there were four conversations running side by side.

At one table, Juliet Can from Stour Trust walked us through some of the practical steps she has taken. Using freeholds and leases, Juliet has helped reclaim spaces in London such as Picture Palace in Brent. And the Old Baths in Hackney Wick. Juliet continues to help Black communities secure, own and manage their own community spaces without the need for outside intervention.

Right across the room, we had Kathy Hopkins from Save Birmingham. Kathy was taking us through a mapping session where she mapped out lost spaces in the city. She also touched on what we as a community can do to prevent this from happening in the future. It turned out that a lot of people had no idea these routes of resistance were even possible. This is the kind of information that can make the difference when it comes to the survival of community assets.

Then, Arlyne Chinyanganya from Roots to Froots ran “Building Wealth 101”. Despite what people may believe, having our personal finances in order is imperative to build community wealth. And how it is the foundation for anything we want to do as a collective.

Then on the final table, we had Keith Shayaam from LCOE, Lynda McFarlane from Nature in Mind, and Kaidon Adams from Hood Futures Studio. The three were in conversation around what they called “New narratives for community wealth”. Keith spoke about his involvement in Newtown’s cultural placemaking strategy. Kaidon shared his story of how he helped reclaim garden space in his local estate. Lynda then shared her wisdom on the value of reconnecting with nature.

Three different angles, but one common thread. Don’t wait for permission.

If you have an idea, don’t wait for anybody to action your ideas. Action them yourself.

This took us into lunch. And by then, the room was full of energy.

The afternoon

Now this is where things went deeper.

At one table, Amahra Spence spoke about her ten-year battle to acquire the land where Hood Futures Studio will build ABUELOS, an art centre and hotel built for the people.

Amahra went into depth on what it takes to reclaim space. In her own words, “Reclaiming this space was about providing infrastructure that the local community is crying out for”.

Next to her, Lizzie Forrester from Birmingham Settlement was breaking down legal structures. Lizzie was taking us through how certain legal structures impact what you can and can’t do. And how important the right legal structure is in the pursuit of community ownership.

Across the room, we had Kat, who is part of the Buy Back Brixton campaign. In her own words, “Brixton is under attack”. Kat came to shed some light on the things they’re doing to fight back against the gentrification of the Brixton area. While her work is rooted in London, this is an issue that plagues inner-city working class and communities across the UK.

And to top it all off, we had Claude Hendrickson (MBE) in conversation with Marcia Lewinson, CEO of WAITS. The two were in conversation around community-led housing. Claude himself was successful in building social housing in his hometown of Leeds. He also helped locals to develop construction skills, which they used to build the same houses they now live in.

As he spoke about how to acquire land, secure funding and rally your community, you could see how people lit up.

By the end of the day, an infectious energy filled the air. People were ready to go out and make change.

This might have been one day. But it proved one thing. People are hungry to build practical ways to resource and sustain Black communities, now and into the future. How to Build Black Community Wealth might have been one day. But it’s one day that could well become the catalyst for serious change in Birmingham and beyond.

Power to Prosper secures funding for next phase of community led change

Power To Prosper — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 21:48:33 +0000

1 October 2026 Power to Prosper has secured funding to continue its work tackling the root causes of poverty, inequality and problem debt, marking the start of a new phase with ambitions to reach more communities across the UK.

Established through a partnership between the Runnymede Trust and the New Economics Foundation, with support from Oak Foundation, Power to Prosper brings together grassroots organisations, researchers and organisers to build collective power and pursue lasting economic change.

Over its first 3 years, the programme has built a network of 6 community hubs, supported 36 Black and minoritised led organisations and distributed £900,000 to grassroots organisations. It has also trained 9 peer researchers, published 3 reports and supported local action on financial inclusion, community assets and free school meals.

Behind these achievements are relationships built through time, trust and shared experience. Power to Prosper has brought community organisations together to build collective power, strengthen local leadership and take action on the systems driving inequality, alongside responding to immediate needs.

The next phase will build on those foundations, with an ambition to grow to 19 community hubs by 2031, working with around 100 organisations.

Through this expanding network, Power to Prosper will support communities to organise around shared priorities and build greater ownership and control over the economic resources that shape their lives. This will include land and property; finance and capital; enterprise and workforce; and spending and procurement, changing who owns, controls and benefits from local wealth.

Research, storytelling and organising will connect this local work to wider systems and policy change, bringing the knowledge, experience and collective power of communities into decisions about the economy.

Erel Onojobi, Programme Director of Power to Prosper, said:

“We’ve learned that lasting economic change starts with power. Communities already have ideas, knowledge and ways of doing things differently. Our job is to organise, build the infrastructure around that, and create the conditions for those alternatives to grow.”

Shabna Begum, Chief Executive of the Runnymede Trust, said:

“We are delighted to see Power to Prosper grow and graduate to this new chapter; it has been incredible to be part of a mosaic of community organisations who are working to deliver justice and prosperity to their communities and Runnymede Trust will continue to support and champion this work in its next phase.”

As its initial partnership with the Runnymede Trust concludes, Power to Prosper will continue with support from the New Economics Foundation during a period of incubation, building the foundations to become an independent organisation.

Hannah Peaker, deputy chief executive at the New Economics Foundation, said:

“Tackling the root causes of racialised poverty has never been more important. Over the past three years, Power to Prosper has supported some of the communities most affected by debt, low pay and exclusion to build their economic power. We are honoured to be incubating Power to Prosper as it grows in ambition to become an independent organisation.”

Power to Prosper thanks its founding partners, Oak Foundation, and the community organisations, organisers, researchers and funders whose contributions have shaped its first 3 years and made this next phase possible.

Media contact
Jude Davis
jude@powertoprosperuk.org

Photography by: JA Visuals

Britain’s Inequality Isn’t Just About Income, It’s About Ownership

Power To Prosper — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 12:03:48 +0000

Written by: Davina Kaur

Britain is an increasingly wealthy country with growth consistently on the agenda. Yet for many people, economic security feels dauntingly out of reach. Food bank use remains at an all time high, housing costs place growing pressure on household incomes, and owning a home is feeling impossible for younger generations. All while the UK’s wealthiest 1% hold the total wealth proportionate to the combined wealth of the least wealthy 50% of households. (In the April 2020 to March 2022 period)

So, if the economy is growing, why is there less to go around?

This question is becoming increasingly difficult for policymakers to avoid especially with the popular debate in most headlines circling taxing billionaires to redistribute wealth. Economists Gabriel Zucman and Ben Tippet (who proposed this policy) estimate a 2% minimum tax on UK households with more than £100 million in wealth, could raise around £10 billion a year.

However, the significance of this debate goes beyond taxation. It raises a more fundamental question about how Britain’s economy distributes wealth.

Income is what we earn. Wealth is what we own.

For most people, income comes primarily from work. We exchange our time and skills for wages, which are then used to pay for housing, food, transport and other necessities. But wealth is different. It is ownership, it can grow through possession of a home, land, a business, shares, pensions or other assets. It grows with the economy and not based on the hours you put in through labour.

Imagine two people earning the same salary. One is able to buy a home with help from their family and the other rents because they cannot afford a deposit. Both work. Both contribute to the same economy. But if property prices rise over the next decade, the first person may accumulate substantial wealth through the increasing value of their home, while the second continues to pay rent (likely with rent increases) without gaining an equivalent asset.

The difference is not necessarily how hard either person worked. It is what they were able to own and start with.

Ownership provides more than financial value. It provides security, resilience and control. For example, an asset can be passed between generations, used during financial difficulty or to generate further income. Therefore, owning a building gives an organisation more control over its future than renting it. And owning land gives its owner significant influence over what happens to it.

This is why inequality cannot be understood through income alone.

Who gets to own?

Britain’s starting point has never been equal.

The relationship between race, wealth and debt cannot be understood through individual financial choices alone. It is shaped by the conditions under which people enter the economy: the wages they can earn, the assets they can access, availability of social security, and whether affordable financial services are available when things go wrong.

These inequalities date back to colonialism, a history of wealth and resource extraction from across the Global South, creating patterns of economic power that did not disappear with decolonisation. The consequences of that history are not a simple line from colonialism to present-day poverty, but they form part of the unequal economic structures within which countries and communities continue to build wealth.

The Office for National Statistics data show substantial differences in household wealth between ethnic groups. In its analysis, White British households were around nine times as likely to be in the highest wealth quintile as Black African households and 18 times as likely as Bangladeshi households. The median total wealth of Black African households was estimated at £34,300, compared with £282,000 for White British households in the period analysed. ONS also found significant differences after accounting for characteristics including age, education, housing tenure and household composition.

These figures are not simply differences in income. They are differences in the assets available to provide security and to be passed to the next generation.

The same pattern can be seen in the labour market.

Racialised communities continue to experience significant pay gaps. In 2022, median hourly pay was £13.53 for Black employees compared with £14.35 for white employees, while Pakistani and Bangladeshi workers had median hourly pay of £10.00 and £9.60 respectively. These differences persist even when qualifications are taken into account e.g. among graduates, Black men earned 17 per cent less than white men.

The significance of these gaps extends beyond the monthly payslip. Lower income means less capacity to save, invest and acquire assets. When more of a household’s income is needed to meet basic costs, there is less available to build the financial foundations from which wealth can grow.

That has consequences at community level too.

A neighbourhood where residents have little property ownership is more exposed to decisions made by landlords, developers and external investors. A community organisation that rents its building can lose that space when a landlord decides to sell or when a local business can be priced out when commercial rents increase. When regeneration raises land values, the financial gains are felt by those who own the land rather than those who have lived, worked and built relationships there.

This creates a contradiction at the heart of Britain’s economy: communities can create enormous social and economic value without owning the assets through which that value is created.

For racialised and working-class communities, this is particularly important. Across Britain, community organisations provide food support, youth services, cultural activity, mutual aid and spaces for people to organise. Yet the organisations providing this infrastructure often operate from buildings they do not own and rely on short-term funding.

The issue is therefore not a lack of community capacity. It is a lack of economic power and control.

From taxing wealth to changing ownership

This is why the debate around wealth taxation matters, but also why it cannot be the end of the conversation. A wealth tax asks: how should wealth that has already been accumulated be redistributed?

Community Asset Ownership asks a different question: How can communities own more of the assets that shape their economic future?

These are not competing ideas. They address different parts of the same problem.

Taxing extreme wealth can redistribute resources towards public services and social investment. It can challenge a system in which those with the greatest accumulated wealth contribute proportionally less than they should. Thus, the emerging political debate around wealth taxation matters, particularly at a time when public services and local government face significant financial pressures. However, redistribution is not ownership and both mus exist to address wealth inequalities.

Community Asset Ownership can include community land trusts, cooperatives, development trusts and community-owned buildings and infrastructure. The common principle is that assets are owned or controlled collectively so that their value can remain available to the communities that depend on them.

This matters because ownership changes power.

A community-owned building cannot simply be sold by an external landlord.
A community land trust can protect land for local priorities rather than allowing its value to be determined solely by its highest commercial use.
A community-owned asset can generate income that is reinvested locally rather than extracted from the neighbourhood.

My research through the Power to Prosper programme in Hyson Green, Nottingham, highlighted why this matters.

Hyson Green is a diverse neighbourhood with a long history of migration, community organising and local enterprise. Yet our research identified pressures including increased private renting, studentification and changing retail patterns. Conversations with residents suggested that the concern was not simply whether investment should happen, but who would benefit from it and whether existing communities would remain able to shape the future of the neighbourhood.

Regeneration may often present as inherently positive because investment can improve buildings, infrastructure and services but when your community no longer feels catered to and represented by the retail it’s surrounded by, it begins to push out familiarity and convenience. If communities no longer feel locally appreciated, part of the investment debates and saving less from rising costs, people are forced to leave.

Community Asset Ownership offers one way of changing that relationship. It gives communities a stake in the assets around them and, with it, greater capacity to determine how those assets are used.

But goodwill and the chance to purchase does not address structural inequalities that make ownership so difficult in the first place. If the government is serious about addressing wealth inequality, it needs to look beyond taxation. National policy should support community ownership through long-term and affordable finance, stronger Community Right to Buy powers, greater support for Community Land Trusts and dedicated funding for communities seeking to acquire local assets. Community Wealth Building should also be embedded into regeneration policy so that public investment builds local economic power rather than simply increasing the value of assets that are subsequently captured by private owners.

For Andy Burnham, this means that a fairer tax agenda should not stop at asking how much more the wealthiest can contribute. It should also ask how wealth and ownership can become less concentrated in the first place. A wealth tax could help redistribute accumulated wealth and fund public investment; community ownership could help ensure that future economic value is retained within communities rather than continually flowing upwards and outwards.

This is particularly important for racial justice.

If racialised communities have historically been disadvantaged in wealth accumulation, then policies that simply assume everyone can participate equally in the existing ownership system will reproduce those inequalities. Economic justice requires confronting the unequal starting points created by history while changing the institutions that continue to reproduce them.

Power to Prosper challenges a powerful assumption that communities should primarily participate in the economy as workers, consumers and tenants, while ownership remains concentrated elsewhere.

If Britain is serious about tackling inequality, the question should therefore be bigger than who earns what.

We should also ask:

Who owns the land? Who owns the buildings? Who benefits when their value rises? And who gets to decide what happens next?

That is not simply a question of economics and better financial management . It is a question of power and, ultimately, of racial and economic justice.

Footnote

Rather than viewing land and buildings solely as financial assets, Community Asset Ownership treats them as long-term social infrastructure. A community centre is not simply a building to generate rental income; it is a place where relationships are formed, services are delivered and local identity is sustained. When these assets are owned collectively, communities gain greater certainty over their future. They are less vulnerable to changing landlords, speculative redevelopment or the sale of land to external investors.

Appendix

Power to Prosper: A Recap On How Communities Are Building Wealth Through Ownership

Power To Prosper — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 10:27:01 +0000

Written By: Margaret Welsh

How is Community Organising Tackling Economic Inequality in the UK?

Public discourse is dominated today by malevolent forces pushing the topsy-turvy idea that racialised minorities are given preferential treatment in the country. Politicians seem unable to counteract this idea and instead allow migrants and people of colour to be scapegoated.

But this couldn’t be further from the truth: a new report, presented for the first time in Birmingham last month, uses novel research techniques to show how the way our economy has been designed, and the UK’s colonial history, work in combination to push racialised minorities into poverty and problem debt.

Black and Brown communities are far less likely to own wealth than white communities. When you don’t have assets or wealth to rely on, your ability to get by becomes far more precarious. And when you can’t rely on the economic system to serve you, you have to build an alternative. That’s what was happening at the Power to Prosper 2026 summer action meet-up in Birmingham: dozens of community leaders gathered at the Legacy Centre, the largest Black business and arts centre in Europe, to share how community organising and ownership can help marginalised communities build wealth and power.

A recap on our recent Summer Action Meetup (2026)

Why Ownership Matters

Keith Shayaam-Smith, CEO of the Legacy Centre, spoke about the importance of Black and Brown communities owning their own facilities, so their existence can be maintained. For Keith, the loss of community facilities built by the Windrush generation is like losing an elder.

Land expert Amahra Spence explained how, when local authorities like Birmingham need to save money, the first item on the agenda is to sell off assets like libraries, youth centres and health centres. When we lose these facilities, we lose the livelihoods of those working there and the social infrastructure which forms the foundation of people’s lives.

For Amahra, if a community owns the land that their facilities are built on, then they have control over their facilities for the long term. And this was something echoed by community leaders from around the country: community ownership of community centres, youth centres and playgrounds gives those facilities safety, security and the ability to plan for the long term. A landlord cannot force communities out through lease changes and a local authority cannot decide to sell the land out from under you.

Communities Building Power Across the Country

In Glasgow, the diverse working-class community in Govanhill now own Govanhill Baths, a wellbeing and arts centre. The community is often underestimated and not seen as expert enough to run their facilities – but, as Glasgow leader Fatima Uygun put it, “If a single mum can run a household, she can run a building.”

In Lambeth, the Loughborough Community Centre at Max Roach was founded in the aftermath of the Brixton Riots in 1981 to give children a safe space to play, learn and thrive. But the centre is coming to the end of a 10-year lease and is trying to persuade the local authority that they need a longer-term lease in order to invest in the physical building.

In Newham, leaders are working to secure a permanent space for community organisations to operate from. They have turned a derelict empty playground into a community hub and are now in discussions to own the land itself, rather than rely on a succession of short-term leases.

In Nottingham, community leaders are trying to buy a handful of buildings to host community organisations – and have already succeeded in acquiring one. When organisations rely on landlords for their buildings, racist attitudes mean landlords may not believe the community is fit to run the building. Asset ownership would protect the community from this.

In Manchester, 10 organisations led by Black, first-generation immigrant women have acquired a “forever home” with no mortgage. The organisations – which serve first-generation immigrants from cradle to grave – can now kick off their shoes and feel grounded.

In Birmingham, local groups want to build affordable housing for Black and “Global Majority” women fleeing domestic abuse. These women often fall outside normal funding options for support and struggle to access social housing – but if they had the opportunity to live in affordable housing, they could work towards becoming economically self-sufficient.

Organising for Change

These hubs around the country are also energised by local community organising campaigns. In Glasgow, the Govanhill community is calling for a dedicated permanent building to serve local young people. In Lambeth, community organising has supported organisations made homeless by the sell-off of International House and the bid for community ownership of Brixton Market. In Newham, campaigners have built relationships with the new mayor and all three Newham MPs, making free school meals for all secondary school pupils a major issue in the recent local elections. In Nottingham, leaders are working with the city council to secure land for a community centre which has lain disused and earmarked for development for years. And in Manchester, the community is building a campaign to secure meaningful employment for “Global Majority” communities, outside of the “three Cs” they are normally pushed into: cleaning, care and catering.

Building for the Future

In a world of growing far-right forces, where wealth is increasingly concentrated at the top, communities around the country are working to build wealth and demand better.

Power to Prosper has almost reached the end of its planned three years. The programme is not just about eliminating poverty and debt – it’s about building something for the future. Beyond just improving the social security system or the jobs market, racialised communities need assets and power for future generations.

Power to Prosper: Building a new economy rooted in justice

Power To Prosper — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 17:00:45 +0000

This work is deeply personal to me. I come to it not just as a programme director, but as someone who grew up in poverty. My mum – for a time an undocumented immigrant – did what she had to do. She took cleaning jobs, wrapped me in oversized coats meant to last five winters, and did her best with what little we had. I remember the free school meals, the stigma, and the quiet resilience required just to get by.

Years later, I found myself working in banking, then in financial inclusion, and eventually in philanthropy. But one thing never changed: racialised communities were consistently the most underfunded, the most overlooked, and the most economically marginalised.

It hit hardest while I was working at a billion-pound foundation. I read research report after research report confirming what I already knew – that Black communities in places like Lambeth and Southwark were among the poorest and unhealthiest in the country. And yet, the urgency to act never matched the scale of the injustice. I remember thinking: this isn’t just data. This is me. This is us.

Then came Covid, and our communities bore the brunt once again. I kept returning to one truth: if we are all equal in the eyes of God, then what is this? What are we doing?

That’s why Power to Prosper exists.

Not a project, a movement

Power to Prosper isn’t a one-off project. It’s building long-term infrastructure for racial and economic justice. It’s built by and for communities that are tired of short-term fixes, of systems that extract and exclude, and of being told to survive when we are here to thrive.

We combine grassroots organising, community investment, and narrative power with a fundamental belief: communities can and must build power. We help people own assets, build wealth, influence policy, and shift the dominant narratives about who holds power – and why.

At the heart of our work are regional hubs – clusters of four to five local organisations, each with a dedicated organiser trained in the organising philosophy of Marshall Ganz. This model focuses not on delivering services, but on developing leaders, building relationships rooted in shared values, and enabling people to take collective action. These organisers are here to grow lasting power – power that flows from within communities and transforms the systems that shape their lives.

Structural issues demand structural change

The current economic system wasn’t built for all of us – and we can’t afford to wait. From the Covid-19 pandemic to the cost-of-living crisis, it’s clear: we are not all in this together. Poverty and problem debt aren’t isolated issues – they’re the result of an economic design that concentrates wealth and power while leaving racialised, working-class, and disabled communities to shoulder the consequences.

That’s what Power to Prosper is here to confront.

We reject individualised, short-term fixes. Instead, we work to transform the very systems that create and sustain inequality. We focus on financial security and dignity for all – and we build solutions grounded in lived experience.

Through grassroots networks and regional coalitions, we centre those most impacted. We embrace participatory action research to ensure that our campaigns reflect the real priorities of real people. We build narrative power, support organiser networks, and advocate for structural change. This is long-term, generational work.

Join us

Power to Prosper is challenging the current economic system because we believe something better is possible. A future rooted in dignity, self-determination, and solidarity. A future where people and communities – not businesses and politicians – own the resources that shape their lives.

We’re not just building awareness. We’re building power.

So, whether you’re an investor, a policymaker, a community leader, a storyteller, or someone who just knows in your bones that this system is broken – we invite you to join us to support, invest, amplify, and organise. Let’s build something better, together.

Erel Onojobi