News and Stories

  • Vote for Froglet Vs Count Binface. Injecting humour into democracy?

    Democracy, and especially elections, can sometimes seem rather dry and serious. Whilst it’s certainly important to vote, maybe there is also a place for a little humour towards making our politics more friendly and digestible? What do you think? Following two seismic by-elections this year, firstly in Gorton and Denton, won by Hannah Spencer (through…

  • Nest Pensions run groundbreaking Member Assembly

    The Nest pension scheme is one of the UK’s largest, expected to have over £100bn of assets under management by 2030! Serving around 14 million members, roughly 1 in 3 working people in the UK. Shared Future helped facilitate their groundbreaking Member Assembly. Pension pots are not abstract financial products. They are built from money…

  • Pride In Places? Participatory Budgeting and Realising Community Power

    After years of austerity politics, there is a new opportunity to realise the potential of community power within those communities most left behind. To unleash community power, we need to think about how public resources have traditionally been, and are still, being spent. And whether they are really based on community-led priorities? That means finding…

  • The Greater Manchester Combined Authority Participation Playbook

    In November 2025 the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) launched its Live Well Participation Playbook. Shared Future wrote the section on participatory budgeting, as well as contributing towards the launch event, opened by GM Mayor Andy Burnham. “What is the antidote to alienation?” So said GM Mayor Andy Burnham rhetorically, at the launch of the…

  • Energising Britain: Impacts from the Cumbria Climate Assembly

    A new Government Policy Paper, by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, has featured the work of the Climate Cumbria Assembly. The policy report for “Energising Britain: Your voice in our Clean Energy Superpower Mission” promotes a new government backed public participation plan. Released on the 3rd December 2025, it aims to ensure…

  • Your Pots 2025 Participatory Budgeting: Now with added online voting

    Your Pots 2025 community grants build a regenerative economy in Lancaster District. The third annual ‘Your Pots – Your Say’ community voting day was held at The Storey in Lancaster on 15th November, and it was an energising event full of enthusiasm, great connections and hope. And, as in previous years, the Closing Loops partnership…

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