Voluntary Groups and Community Centres

Ben Coleman Excerpts

Wednesday 25th March 2026 Westminster Hall

[Ben Coleman (Chelsea and Fulham) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered Government support for voluntary groups and community centres.

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. I am grateful for the opportunity to introduce this debate, because voluntary organisations and community centres are central to our public life. I should declare that I am a trustee of the Sands End Arts and Community Centre in Fulham in my constituency. Community centres are the places people turn to when they need help, connection or simply somewhere to belong. Today, I would like to make the case that they deserve far greater recognition, protection and investment than they currently receive. I know that many colleagues are here today to celebrate the remarkable work that community centres are doing right across the country and how they go above and beyond for so many people, providing vital services that might simply otherwise not exist and that can be transformative for people’s lives.

Community centres can be described as the backbone of our local social infrastructure; by supporting vulnerable residents and preventing crises before they escalate, they relieve pressures on overstretched statutory services. They are the places where people go for affordable advice, for skills, for culture and simply for companionship, yet many are operating under intense and growing financial pressure that threatens their very existence. The gap between what is needed and what is provided is simply far too wide.

It is important to recognise that the Government have taken meaningful steps to improve the situation, for which I am grateful. Through the Pride in Place programme, for example, real investment is now flowing into local regeneration, putting power in the hands of residents and communities to shape the future of their areas.

[Mark Sewards (Leeds South West and Morley) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making a powerful speech on the contribution that community centres make to our communities. Will he join me in commending Farnley Community Centre, which is putting on an Easter parade and giving out not only chocolate eggs to local residents, but applications for the neighbourhood board to spend our Pride in Place money? Is that not a great example of how innovative residents can be through community centres?

[Ben Coleman]

It is indeed, and I am grateful for the opportunity to recognise Farnley Community Centre, which is being innovative in encouraging people not only to get their egg, but to take part in a community discussion about how to spend the money that this Government have made available across the country to boost communities—that is an excellent idea.

Besides the Pride in Place programme, which Farnley Community Centre is so cleverly making use of and involving its community in, the replacement of the old right to bid with the strengthened community right to buy is very welcome. It will give local groups a genuine first right of refusal over assets of community value and help communities to hold on to the spaces that matter most to them. The Government also launched the civil society covenant in October 2025, which signals a renewed commitment to partnership and collaboration with the sector. High street rental auctions are helping to bring vacant properties back into use, turning empty units into attractive spaces for community life.

[Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that for those places that have not yet had Pride in Place funding, bodies such as the National Lottery Community Fund, Sport England, the Arts Council and the National Lottery Heritage Fund are also great sources of funding and could be encouraged to do things in a simpler way? In Cornwall, our town councils are growing and taking on more responsibilities, as the unitary has shed them during austerity. Does he agree that town councils have had a really big role to play in helping communities and community centres?

[Ben Coleman]

Again, that is an excellent point from my hon. Friend. There is everything to be gained from local authorities looking at the plethora of support available to them, and equally from those providing support—whether it is Sport England, Arts Council or Heritage Lottery funding—being as simple as possible in enabling local authorities and organisations to make applications. I do not think anyone would have any objection to the red tape being reduced in any of these areas.

[Alex Easton (North Down) (Ind)]

I thank the hon. Member for securing this debate. Is it not the case that our community and voluntary organisations provide essential services in areas that Government simply cannot reach effectively? In my own constituency, we have the examples of uHub, Bangor food bank, and local community groups from working-class areas. Does the hon. Member agree that such groups must be recognised for the vital role they play in our community and properly supported?

[Ben Coleman]

I absolutely do, and I am sure the food bank and community groups in the hon. Member’s community welcome his support. That is absolutely in line with what I am saying—these are essential parts of our community. We have two food banks in my own constituency. It is a crying shame that food banks have now become part of the British way of life; if we look back to more than 14 years ago, there were hardly any in this country. It is an absolute indictment that that should be the case, but the fact that the hon. Member’s food bank is doing so well and supporting people has to be welcomed. The Government have taken hugely welcome steps, but I suppose one could say that they are still first steps, great steps though they are. We need to do so much more to repair the damage caused by years of funding cuts, set against a sharp rise in demand—they go together, sadly.

[Jim Dickson (Dartford) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. On the point of under-investment over many years, he is making a really good case that community centres are places that bring people together and get them active and talking, resulting in improvements in mental and physical wellbeing. My constituency has some great facilities, including Greenhithe and Joydens Wood community centres and Bean village hall. However, the much-loved Swanscombe pavilion has closed and been left dormant, in dire need of investment, leaving a community without an important place to bring people together. Does my hon. Friend agree that local facilities are vital, and that we need long-term, patient investment to make them the community centres and centres of our local life that they can be?

[Ben Coleman]

I absolutely agree. I am sure that my hon. Friend has fought hard for the Swanscombe pavilion, and it is a great shame that it has closed. I am going to explore the reasons why these things happen in just a minute, but sometimes one thinks that local authorities could be a bit sharper in how they do things and understand the challenges facing us. Some of them are less competent than others—I have no idea whether that is the case in my hon. Friend’s part of the world, but I am sure he is fighting for his local centre.

In a sense, my hon. Friend’s intervention brings me to my next point about the situation not just in his constituency, but right across England. The financial position of community centres across England is stark: net spending on community centres and public halls has fallen by 38% in real terms since 2009, which is a profound erosion of the infrastructure that sustains the life of our communities. I am grateful to the House of Commons Library for providing me with that figure. The Ethical Property Foundation recently ran a survey, talking to community centres and local areas across the country about what was going on, and it has identified five interconnected challenges facing community centres. I think it is worth sharing them, because in the challenges lies the solution.

The first is the insecurity that exists around leasing—the single greatest threat to the sector that the Ethical Property Foundation has identified. Over half of community organisations expect to face lease-related difficulties in the future, because too many are operating on short leases. They have break clauses, unpredictable rent increases, and full repair obligations passed on to them without adequate support. That combination is not simply difficult for them to deal with; it is highly destabilising. Without security of tenure, organisations cannot plan, fundraise effectively or invest in the buildings their communities depend on. We have to realise that many of these organisations are not trying to grow—they are simply trying to stay in the buildings that they already occupy.

That leads me to the second challenge identified, which is access to capital funding. Community centres report that securing capital investment is incredibly difficult—success rates can be as low as one in 20 applications, and the administrative burden is considerable. The most significant barrier is often the lease itself, because many funders require between 15 and 25 years of tenure security before they will invest, and if that does not exist, the organisation does not get the investment. Without that, organisations are effectively locked out of the funding they need to repair, upgrade, or simply make safe their buildings.

The third challenge is the condition of the buildings themselves. Many community centres operate out of ageing, poorly maintained premises. The research by the Ethical Property Foundation shows that 58% of organisations expect difficulties manging their buildings in the coming year. That is driven by rising maintenance costs and a lack of specialist expertise. I have seen at first hand in my constituency that trustees and volunteers are being asked to act as de facto property managers, but they often do not have the skills or support required. That is not sustainable or fair, and it carries a real risk to the communities that these buildings serve.

The fourth challenge is landlord practices and local authority procedures—too often, local authorities compound these difficulties. They include short-term tenancies, delayed decisions, regeneration schemes that leave organisations in limbo and, in some cases, sudden evictions or unaffordable cost increases. The ability to evict a community organisation with minimal notice is an extraordinary power, and it should be exercised carefully, and not without clear criteria, proper justification and meaningful protections for the communities affected.

In the Chelsea part of my constituency, we have a charity called St Mary Abbots Rehabilitation and Training, or SMART for short. Since 1985, it has operated a warm and welcoming centre, supporting people affected by mental illness on their recovery journey. It offers a range of activities and training opportunities, and a popular café. Last summer, the council locked the SMART centre out of its premises without warning and put a dirty great padlock on the gate. There was no alternative provision, nor did the council offer any proper support. It talked about safety grounds, but serious questions remain about the evidence, the timelines and the mitigation offered. Addressing all that was an uphill struggle for SMART, and it felt as though it was in danger of going under. Although a temporary solution was eventually found and reimbursement was agreed in principle, that came only after a prolonged and damaging process during which services were disrupted and vulnerable people were left without support. That should not have happened—it did not need to happen.

Of course, for every bad example, there are many examples across the country of excellent partnership working between community centres and local authorities. That said, the baseline must be raised. Risk should not be transferred to community organisations without the security that they need to manage it.

That brings me to the fifth and final challenge identified by the Ethical Property Foundation—

[Mr Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry) (DUP)]

Hear, hear!

[Ben Coleman]

Well, it is important to set these things out clearly. Underpinning all these things is the absence of a national framework. There is currently no consistent guidance for local authorities on how to support community centres that are managing publicly owned buildings. There are no clear standards on tenancy practices. There is nothing to help the charities do the job that the community needs them to do.

Community centres need longer, more secure leases and fair tenancy practices as the baseline, not as an exception. They need accessible capital funding with processes proportionate to the size and capacity of the organisations applying. They need expert legal, technical and professional support to manage buildings effectively, and a national framework that treats community centres as essential public infrastructure, not as commercial tenants to be managed at arm’s length.

I have three requests for the Minister, each of which is, I hope, practical, achievable and capable of making a real difference to community centres across the country—and may I say how much I appreciate the enthusiasm of the hon. Member for East Londonderry (Mr Campbell) to hear them? First, will the Department for Culture, Media and Sport issue clear guidance to local authorities on the support that should be provided to voluntary organisations managing council buildings, covering both tenancy agreements and day-to-day property management? Too many groups are navigating those responsibilities without any consistent framework to fall back on. That must change.

Secondly, will the Department provide guidance on the circumstances in which a local authority acting as a landlord may issue insecure tenancies or tenancies at will? Thirdly and finally, will the Department publish guidance on the rationale and circumstances under which local authorities may remove community buildings? Communities deserve transparency when spaces that have served them for years are suddenly at risk of closure or disposal. Without clear criteria and a duty to justify such decisions, too many closures happen without scrutiny—as has taken place in my community—and too many communities are left without resource.

These targeted, proportionate requests for guidance and transparency would provide a foundation for a much more consistent, fairer approach to community infrastructure across England. Community centres across our country are a local gem—there is nothing else like them in our areas—and people’s lives are all the richer for them. The Government have the opportunity to give them the boost they need, and I hope they will seize it with both hands.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

--- Later in debate ---

[Ben Coleman]

I have very much enjoyed this debate. Hon. Members have given wonderful examples of what is going on in their constituencies and their engagement with voluntary activities. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) said that 46% of people in Northern Ireland volunteer. That is a hell of a number—it is very impressive, and I appreciate hearing that.

It was very interesting to hear my hon. Friend the Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Daniel Francis) illustrate the problems that we are talking about. He spoke of the importance of engaging properly with the local community. The local council failed to maintain the Parkside community centre in Barnehurst for so many years, and then their immediate solution was to shut it down, despite the fact that so many residents wanted it to stay open. That appears to be a dereliction of duty, and I appreciated hearing the details of that.

I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Poole (Neil Duncan-Jordan) about the value of listening to residents in deciding what the community needs. That is absolutely crucial.

My hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) said that community groups were an essential partner in prevention. He reminds me that I must listen to his radio show—and maybe eat a bacon butty—[Interruption.] It was a shameless plug.

[Jim Shannon]

And meet his mother!

--- Later in debate ---

[Ben Coleman]

And meet his mother. I would like to bring the listenership up to two; a 100% increase after this debate would not be a bad outcome.

It was interesting to hear my hon. Friend the Member for Stirling and Strathallan (Chris Kane) talk about how local government in Scotland has been constrained by the actions of the Scottish Government. That is having a serious impact on the voluntary sector.

The hon. Member for Frome and East Somerset (Anna Sabine) reminded me—this is a little secret, which has now been shared—that we are fellow bassoon players, although I have not played since school. That reminds me of the damage that Margaret Thatcher did when she abolished the Inner London Education Authority and decimated musical education across the city. It has still not fully recovered, despite our efforts to improve things.

The speech of the hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (Mr French) was very interesting, particularly given that he completely avoided the issue that I raised of the damage that austerity under the Conservative Government did. We had years of funding cuts, and of course a very sharp rise in demand for voluntary services. We are grappling with that as we try to repair the immense damage to this country after so many years.

It was good to hear the Minister set out in such detail the many things that the Government are trying to do to repair the damage. We cannot pretend that it does not exist. The examples that everybody has given show the huge challenge to the community and voluntary sector and community centres. I very much appreciate the Minister’s determination to ensure that the Government do more. I will very happily take her up on the offer—if it turns into one—of a meeting with Ministers at MHCLG. That would be excellent and I thank her for that.

After hearing everyone’s examples and experiences in their communities, I want to close by thanking our community centres and the volunteers in them for their immense work. Our communities are richer in many ways—even if not financially—and definitely happier and better supported thanks to them. I hope the changes that I have called for can be made to give them a boost and the stability that they need.

[Esther McVey (in the Chair)]

If Members will allow me, I would like to congratulate my local rugby club, Lymm rugby club, which last week got the King’s award for voluntary service.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered Government support for voluntary groups and community centres.