The private sector can play a crucial, yet currently underappreciated, role in providing social infrastructure to transform local communities – new report by Bennett Institute and Power to Change.

The incoming Labour government has set out their plans for “empowering communities to transform their neighbourhoods, high streets and important community assets” and to work with the private sector to “crowd-in” investment where it is needed.
This comes against a backdrop of a deterioration of social infrastructure in recent years, which has disproportionately affected “left behind places”, as well as the chronic financial situation of the public sector.
Today, new research published by the Bennett Institute for Public Policy and Power to Change, shows how the private sector can contribute to the provision of social infrastructure without large amounts of public money. This offers a significant, though underappreciated, opportunity for policymakers concerned by the steady decline of many communities.
The report, Private space, public good: working together to deliver social infrastructure, finds that many privately owned spaces function as social infrastructure in both planned and unplanned ways and that the social function of these spaces can be enhanced to the benefit of both the users and owners of the space. Social infrastructure consists of the physical spaces and community facilities which bring people together to build meaningful relationships. The report shows that the private sector makes a significant contribution to its provision.
The authors, Rosa Marks, Jessica Craig and Owen Garling, found that spaces like supermarkets and shopping centres, or the development and regeneration of high streets, can help deliver much-needed social infrastructure to help the economy and contribute to the creation of happy and healthy places.
“Our research shows that social infrastructure activates a place, attracts footfall, and encourages people to spend time and money at surrounding businesses. Private organisations are meaningfully engaging with local communities to shape the local area and, in some cases, transfer decision-making power to local people. Evidence shows that this results in spaces tailored to specific local needs and ensures the long-term sustainability and commercial viability of the spaces created,” says Rosa Marks, lead author and Research Assistant, Bennett Institute for Public Policy, Cambridge.
The research, funded by Power to Change, involved a combination of desk-based research, interviews and roundtables with policymakers, community businesses, charities, asset owners, and developers to broaden our understanding of what constitutes social infrastructure and to highlight creative approaches to its provision.
To ensure best practice approaches to developing and maintaining social infrastructure in place, the authors identify four important principles – meaningful partnerships, a placemaking approach, sustainability, and recognising social and commercial value – and provide recommendations for the private sector, local authorities, and national government.
They recommend that:
- private asset owners and developers work with community organisations to create social infrastructure and consider community stewardship of spaces to embed long-term sustainability;
- local authorities take a convening role to help shape a “whole place” approach to their area, and;
- central government adopt a comprehensive strategy for social infrastructure to shape a coherent approach to policymaking, funding, and other support for social infrastructure.
The preservation of existing social infrastructure and the delivery of new and much-needed spaces that are tailored to local needs would not only benefit the private sector but also the local economy, the local community, and the public sector.
Read report: Private space, public good: working together to deliver social infrastructure
Read blog: Private space, public good: working together to deliver social infrastructure
The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy.