2024 Cooperative Case Studies
- May 2024
Reducing Poverty in Brent
Brent Council
- Lead Member Brent Council
- Categories Poverty
Principles met
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New models of meeting priority needs
In exploring new ways of meeting the priority needs of our communities we will encourage models, such as co-operatives and mutuals, which give greater influence and voice to staff and users. in designing and commissioning public services and in determining the use of public resources.
Poverty is increasingly an outer London problem. The urgency of the issue has been reinforced by the pandemic, which has proved just how easy it can be to experience poverty – but also how much can be achieved by local action. Brent council has long been committed to tackling poverty, the blight it casts on peoples’ lives and the resources we use to help deal with the consequences.
While we had the facts and figures and knew both its impacts on residents’ quality of life and the issues our services address, we needed a thorough understanding of poverty in our borough – its causes, consequences and how to make a real difference in tackling it.
We wanted to supplement the expertise within the council by drawing on wider expertise and experience and learn lessons about what works elsewhere. And we wanted to understand the perspectives of people experiencing poverty. Our focus was finding ways of making real change, addressing the roots of poverty – unconfined by what we have thought and done in the past.
