The Community Development Foundation has won the bidding process to deliver the government's Community First programme. Community First will comprise of a £30m small grants programme for some of the most deprived areas in the country and a national £50m endowment match challenge.

With the government bringing in a Community Right to Buy, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has produced a timely report based on a study of a community organisations who have taken on managing community assets. The report outlines the potential benefits, challenges, success factors, and support required for community asset ownership and management.

Planning Minister, Greg Clark, has revised planning guidance to ensure viable requests from community groups, for compulsory purchase of a threatened community asset, are treated seriously. A local authority will be required to respond formally to any such request outlining their reasons for whatever decision they make.

‘Realising Community Wealth: Local Government and the Big Society', a new report from the New Local Government Network, identifies areas of the country most ready to benefit from the Big Society agenda and those most at risk from it. The report contends that there are deprived areas relatively rich in ‘community wealth' whilst others face ‘double deprivation' and require extra help to cope with withdrawal of state services.