This project is supported by The National Lottery Community Fund through its Community Power Fund. The funding supports work with communities in Brighton and Hove to increase their ability to influence the places they live, the services they use and the decisions that affect their lives.
What is The People’s Blueprint?
The People’s Blueprint is designed to build community power with residents of Brighton and Hove city centre. We will bring together residents to have their say and shape how the city centre is designed and developed in a series of engagement events.
They will focus on their lived experiences of the built environment (the streets, buildings and spaces we use every day) and they will develop ideas and recommendations to help shape the City Centre Design Code, which guides future development. By creating the rules with residents, we can make the city centre work for everyone.
How the project will work
The People’s Blueprint is going to be built on four key areas of work:
- The Community Steering Group will bring together leaders and connectors of communities to guide us towards impact for local communities
- Capacity building for the local council and local people to equitably engage with communities on issues that matter to them
- A range of Community Conversations with residents who live in the city centre to explore their experiences, needs and views on what the built environment of the city centre should be like. This will happen with communities in places where they gather, so people can have honest conversations with others who they identify with
- A City Centre Deliberation Day where a diverse group of residents will explore the range of perspectives we learn about from the Community Conversations and develop a set of shared recommendations which will underpin the Design Code for the city centre
We will build community power by working with communities who live in the city centre. We will work with them from start to finish, including to define what impact would be for them and how we go on to achieve that. This will be particularly important amongst those voices we know are marginalised, including young renters, migrants and disabled people.
Community Steering Group
One of our first priorities in this project is to assemble a Community Steering Group who can help guide this project and make sure it is truly rooted in the experiences of city centre residents.
The Community Steering Group will act as a critical sounding board throughout the project, helping shape how communities are engaged and how their voices influence decision making. Bringing together people with strong links to local communities, the group will support the design and delivery of Community Conversations, advise on what meaningful impact looks like for residents, and help ensure the work reflects the diversity of experiences across Brighton and Hove city centre.
By combining lived experience with local knowledge, the Steering Group will help the project reach people who are often underrepresented or unheard, including young renters, migrants and disabled people.
If you are interested in joining the Community Steering Group, then click here to find out more.
Who we are working with
Thanks to National Lottery players, The People’s Blueprint has been funded for 2026 by The National Lottery Community Fund - the largest community funder in the UK. This truly life-changing funding comes from the first phase of its Community Power Fund – to support underserved communities in England to affect positive change in their local area. To influence the places they live, the services they use, and the decisions that affect them.
We are also working closely with Brighton and Hove City Council in this project. They are helping us to engage with communities and are ultimately the policymakers who can put into practice what recommendations communities develop.
What's next
We’re currently recruiting members for the Community Steering Group, which will help guide The People’s Blueprint from the very start. The group will shape how communities are involved, what impact looks like, and how this work leaves a lasting legacy for Brighton and Hove city centre.
If you live, work, or are closely connected to communities in the city centre and are interested in helping guide this project, we’d love to hear from you!
Find our more and register your interest in joining the Community Steering Group here.
