Place

• Are you looking for help with your business but not sure where to start?
• Would you like free, expert HR, legal or financial advice?
• Would you like to boost your business opportunities at local events?

Together with Natwest Group, BITC is providing free support to help businesses and communities in the UK thrive – and we are starting by supporting business owners in Bradford and Coventry.

Find out more about this free support by registering your interest today

• Town Deal – Town Deal – The Blackpool Pride of Place partnership helped to successfully deliver a £39.5m Town Deal with Government to realise some of its ambitions to develop the economy, as set out in its Town Prospectus. Paul Smith is Chair of the Towns Fund Board, which secured the funding, and continues to work with the government on further funding opportunities. Read the Town Prospectus – Agenda for Action 2030.
• Born and Bred Network  – The Pride of Place partnership has created a Born and Bred network of alumni. These ambassadors were born or raised in Blackpool, or just have a special interest in the area. This network helps us to persuade and influence national bodies and restore pride in what is the UK’s most famous seaside resort. 
• Claremont –The Pride of Place has taken a ‘ground up’ community focus in the Claremont Ward of Blackpool. Claremont forms around a quarter of Blackpool’s inner area and suffers from intense deprivation, facing challenges of high rates of unemployment and crime combined with poor health outcomes and low average household incomes. The last two years has seen the development of a strong Claremont team of community residents, public service agencies, business leaders, civil society organisations, young people and council representatives meeting regularly to tackle these issues.
• Digital Vision – The Blackpool Pride of Place partnership has helped to generate a digital vision and narrative to help improve socio-economic outcomes for Blackpool and to create better lives. The objective was to launch the Digital Vision publicly, so it can be easily communicated, owned by the Town and be projected for profile and growth. This vision aligns to Blackpool’s ‘2030 vision’ in the Town Prospectus. 
  Blackpool’s Trans-Atlantic Connectivity, which connects Blackpool to New York faster than London, will also bring economic opportunities to the town. The cable is an important component of Blackpool’s digital infrastructure. View and download the digital vision and infographic
• Prince’s 7 for 70 Projects – The Pride of Place is supporting this project, which is one of seven across the UK undertaken by The Prince’s Foundation to coincide with HRH Prince Charles’s 70th birthday in 2018, in a campaign known as 7 for 70. The Fleetwood Trust purchased the largely-vacant former hospital building in 2018 and is now developing a vibrant, sustainable venue for much-needed services and support. The vision includes facilities and flexible spaces for partners from the health care and voluntary sectors working within the Town to support residents’ wellbeing.
• Responsible Business Network – The Fylde Coast Responsible Business Network (RBN) is a group of businesses committed to supporting the local community. It is already making a difference and has created a thriving network of local businesses to share insight, expertise and knowledge of how to best support the community. Its key campaigns are; helping young people  prepare for the world of work, and supporting those farthest from employment, back into work.

BITC is working with business, the Rochdale Development Agency and community groups to deliver transformational change in Rochdale.

• Leaders in manufacturing
  BITC is supporting the work of the Rochdale Development Agency and Town Deal Board in making Rochdale the home of advanced manufacturing in the area.
  Learn more about how Rochdale is the home of advanced manufacturing in the area.
   

• Rochdale Collaboration
  We convene businesses already working with the community in Rochdale to share information and maximise opportunities. The focus of work is currently helping skills and employability in schools and further education.
• The Rochdale Responsible Business Network is a group of Rochdale businesses committed to supporting the local community. Working in cross-sector collaboration, it works to share insight, expertise, and knowledge of how to best support the community.
  
  Please complete this form if you are a Rochdale business interested in joining the network
  
  

The Wisbech 2020 Vision was borne out of discussions between the political leaders of Fenland District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council, along with the MP for North East Cambridgeshire. All agreed that the challenges Wisbech faced were greater than those elsewhere in their constituencies. Public bodies and private sector partners needed to think differently about what to do united by ‘a passion to deliver a prosperous future’. Formally launched in 2013 and reviewed in 2017, The Vision focuses on education and skills, health and wellbeing and cohesion, infrastructure and built environment and the local economy.

A programme of work is now under way with the long-term ambition to improve transport, build local skills, increase tourism and boost retail, create new jobs and more homes. 

Our Brave New World report showed that digital technologies have the opportunity to support communities traditionally left behind. This could be done by harnessing data to better understand the local population, their challenges and opportunities, increasing the connectivity between communities and increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of key services such as transport and education.

However, there is a risk that this digital revolution will consolidate power and wealth in areas already more advantaged while many of the 6.2 million people without the basic skills to regularly use the internet will be isolated from major towns and cities.

BITC’s Responsible Digital Business programme seeks to work with organisations to ensure that this digital transformation is ethical, sustainable and inclusive and that their innovations are developed in recognition of these challenges.

In Norwich the focus is on tackling loneliness and social isolation through a collaborative approach.

Aviva plc, a British multinational insurance company set up the The Norwich Together Alliance with the objective of bringing organisations together to tackle the issue of loneliness in Norwich.

In the summer of 2020, Business in the Community (BITC) took over driving forward the Alliance. Currently 25 organisations are able to support and deliver community interventions.

Why loneliness in Norwich?
Research found that although Norwich is one of the friendliest cities, there are also large pockets of deprivation, with a large percentage of the population feeling the poverty of loneliness.

What the Norwich Together Alliance stands for:
Lonely is not something you are. It is something you feel.
At The Norwich Together Alliance, we do not believe that loneliness should define you. Or that you should have to fight it alone. This is why the Alliance brings together the various projects designed to tackle the urgent problem of loneliness. The collaboration makes it easier for anyone who may need help to be reached.

If you are looking for ways to tackle loneliness, get in touch. And we will take it on together.
Email us at Norwich Together