Conference on Community Wealth Building.

It seems that the event on Thursday may be full. I am speaking at a seminar below. 

15.05: Levering local finance

Chair: Councillor Martyn Rawlinson, Preston City Council
Marianne Sensier, University of Manchester (10 mins) 

Councillor John Gray, Newham and Unison NEC (10 mins) 

Catherine Howarth, Share Action (10 mins) 

The focus is on local finance, so will focus on using pension funds and local banks to provide local financing for investment. The overarching theme of the conference is on what Labour can do now – i.e. where we are in power already – to overcome austerity and strengthen local economies

Conference on Community Wealth Building. 8 February 2018. Preston

I am due to speak at this seminar about work done in promoting more creative and sustainable use of local government pension funds in the session "Leveraging Local Finance"

"Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Andrew Gwynne MP, and Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell MP, will host this conference for activists, academics and Labour councillors.

In a series of sessions, we will explore how to use levers such as procurement, insourcing, setting up local banks, and energy generation to revitalise local economies and strengthen economic democracy. It will be a great opportunity to learn from each other about how we can boost our local economies to overcome austerity and transform the lives of those who are suffering every day because of the policies of the current Conservative Government. 

Speakers include: Ted Howard - Social entrepreneur, author and Executive Director of The Democracy Collaborative. Hilary Wainwright - Editor of Red Pepper magazine, Aditya Chakraborrty - Senior economics commentator for the Guardian. 

Cllr Matthew Brown - Preston City Council, Cabinet Member for Social Justice, Inclusion and Policy Initiatives. 

Location – Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Market Square, Preston, PR1 2PP"