Advancing a Shared Economy in Preston

In April 2022 Preston City Council launched a new programme to strengthen institutional capacity in Preston to underpin a more democratic and collaborative economy. Funded by Preston City Council and Power to Change, Advancing a Shared Economy in Preston builds on learning from the Open Society Foundations (OSF) programme. Increased collaboration between Preston’s anchor organisations, strengthened community capacity for cooperative activity and an enhanced and independent cooperative development function in Preston are the three expected outcomes of the new programme.

Specific projects will contribute to each outcome. The focus for anchor collaboration will be to engage anchors in a collaborative project with a specialist delivery partner commissioned from the renewables/decarbonisation sector. The objective will be to identify an opportunity in Preston for public, cooperative and community development of decarbonised energy systems and develop this through feasibility and detailed project development stages to delivery readiness.