Greater Manchester driving change through the power of community

On Thursday 5 June 2025, Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, was hosted on ‘Driving Change: The BIG GM Live Well Bus Tour’, highlighting the amazing work of local community organisations across the city region, and the crucial role they play in shaping a happier, healthier and fairer future.

The tour led by GM Live Well, Local Trust, Locality, and the We’re Right Here campaign for community power, showcased pioneering community-led spaces in Greater Manchester, to support the development of Live Well centres, spaces and offers which have just received £10 million investment from GMCA and NHS GM to tackle health, social and economic inequalities: Greater Manchester invests £10m to support Greater Manchester residents to live well - Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Grounded in the learning from Big Local and the We’re Right Here campaign, insights from the tour will inform the future development of Live Well centres, spaces and offers, and ultimately shape how Greater Manchester (GM) can become a pioneer in growing community-led approaches in local decision-making nationally. 

Recent research has shown that, across the UK, people feel shut out of decisions that shape their neighbourhoods. Polling commissioned by the We’re Right Here campaign found that 84% of the UK feel they have ‘no or not much’ say over the important decisions that affect their areas, while a groundbreaking report by Local Trust and Manchester University showed that almost a quarter of young people in Greater Manchester’s doubly disadvantaged neighbourhoods feel they can’t trust people in their local area.

Community organisations understand local needs and are trusted by their communities but the impact they can make is often restricted by red-tape and a lack of resources. Greater Manchester is showing a different way forward, through initiatives like GM Live Well, public services and communities are working together to create economic growth, social connection, and improved health.

To learn from some of the region’s community-led spaces, senior leaders from across Greater Manchester’s health and community sectors as well as national policymakers, travelled together on a specially commissioned Bee Network bus. They visited places where local communities have been and remain at the heart of shaping their neighbourhoods, creating welcoming, community spaces that are delivering meaningful, everyday support with, not to, local people. These spaces bring to life the GM Live Well vision in practice –spaces that demonstrate what’s possible when communities are trusted to lead.

At each stop, attendees experienced how local communities have shaped - and continue to shape - the support and opportunities available in their neighbourhoods. Whether it’s helping someone into work, offering debt advice, creating spaces of belonging, or reimagining local life, the visits showed the vital role communities play in tackling health, social, and economic inequalities.

The spaces visited have either received Big Local funding, are Locality / We’re Right Here Campaign members, or are Live Well Accelerator sites funded through the National Lottery Community Fund strategic Live Well programme:

• Sale West Community Centre (Trafford)
• CommUNITY Little Hulton and Peel Park Pavilion (Salford)
• All Souls (Bolton)
• CommUnity Corner (Wigan)

At each local area, participants saw the outstanding work these communities are doing and had the opportunities to listen to the experiences of volunteers, community leaders and residents who use these spaces and helped bring them to life. From mini tours to green spaces, citizen testimony, bike workshops, art and digital exhibitions on citizen voice, public living rooms, advice hubs and litter picking, the tour showcased the many ways our people and communities can be supported to live well.

Diane, who visits Sale West Community Centre’s FoodShare, a free service that distributes food rescued from supermarkets that is still edible but may have passed its best before date, said:

“I come here for FoodShare. The smallest thing can make a big difference to someone’s life. Just by listening. Just by being there. It’s really important. It’s something I look forward to every Friday. It’s like a little goal that I get up and go out. It’s the only day I go out in the week.”

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said:

“Community-powered spaces like those we visited today are redefining how we put meaningful, everyday support back at the heart of every neighbourhood.

"They're showing what’s possible when communities are empowered to lead. These are welcoming spaces that are delivering that help and support with, not simply at, local people. This is our vision for GM Live Well – joined-up public services that lift people up, instead of tick-box systems that knock them down.”

Inayat Omarji MBE, All Souls Bolton and We’re Right Here community leader, said:

“At All Souls in Bolton, we’re proof of the difference that can be made when local people are trusted to lead. Against all odds, we’ve transformed a derelict church into a thriving community hub; a space where young people and old people can connect, and feel valued.

"I was born in this community. I know its strengths and its struggles. That’s what local organisations bring, that deep trust and deep knowledge of what their communities really need to thrive.

"Alongside my fellow leaders of the We’re Right Here campaign, we’re calling on the government to empower communities in the upcoming English Devolution Bill, so that local people across the country can shape the places they love.”

Rachel Rowney, CEO of Local Trust, said:

“Sale West and Little Hulton Big Locals are great examples of the impact communities can have when given the tools to make the changes they want to see in their neighbourhoods. We know that long term, flexible funding which places trusts in residents to make decisions on resources results in healthier and happier neighbourhoods.”

Ed Wallis, Director of Policy and Engagement at Locality, said:

“Across Greater Manchester, and the country, Locality members like Community Little Hulton and Sale West are showing what’s possible when local people, who know their communities best, are trusted with power. Services are better aligned with local needs, community voices are being amplified, and local economies are thriving.

"Greater Manchester is showing real community power leadership and beginning to embed community anchor organisations in local decision making. This can be the start of a community power revolution that gives local people the rights, resources and powers they need to shape the places they love.

"That’s why Locality is backing the We’re Right Here campaign and we look forward to working with GM Live Well to unlock the potential of local people here in Greater Manchester and across the country.” 

During the journey, attendees chatted with friends from Chatty Bus, an initiative that helps to reduce loneliness felt in communities recognising that 1 in 3 individuals get the bus for social interaction.

They also took part in learning and reflection with Local Trust and the We’re Right Here campaign. These conversations will deepen our understanding of what it truly means - in policy and in practice - to be community-led and system enabled. To listen to, invest in, and work with communities differently, so everyone across Greater Manchester can Live Well.

Notes to editors

Press contacts:

• Kirsten Whitehead, Greater Manchester Combined Authority: 07708 248309, kirstenwhitehead@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk 
• Benjamin Jackson, Local Trust: 0203 588 0428, jackson@localtrust.org.uk
• Lewis Garland, Locality: 07717 367782, ​lewis.garland@locality.org.uk  
• Michael Del Rosso, TfGM: Michael.DelRosso@tfgm.com

Little Hulton and Sale West are Two Big Local areas which have received a £1 million grant by Local Trust to improve their communities. These Big Locals have done incredible work creating lasting change in their neighbourhoods, using the money to transform community spaces such as local parks, creating sporting facilities and building community centres.

All Souls Bolton is run by We’re Right Here community leader Inayat Omarji, and a perfect example of a thriving community-led space. It supports everyone from kids to pensioners to lead happier and healthier lives. Empowering more groups like All Souls Bolton with greater power to make change happen is a practical way to solve some of the UK’s biggest problems.

Live Well received more than £1 million over two years from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest community funder in the UK for work in Salford, Bolton, Rochdale, Oldham and Tameside. The funding is supporting Live Well as it seeks to address the root causes of poor health and wellbeing in Greater Manchester and invest in people and communities to help them overcome challenges and build healthy lives and places.

Bee Network

The tour also showcased the role of integrated transport in driving inclusive growth. Acting as more than transport between visits, the specially commissioned Bee Network bus was a live demonstration of how accessible, connected transport unlocks community spaces and opportunities for local people to live well. Connectivity, mobility, and access are all part of what it means to live well.

The Bee Network bus has been commissioned specifically for this bus tour to highlight how key accessibility is to the GM Live Well ambition, which wants to see more people connected to great everyday support through the Bee Network. Attendees travelled on a bus that was not taken out of service on the day. 

About GM Live Well

GM Live Well is Greater Manchester’s commitment to ensuring great everyday support is available in every neighbourhood.  Tackling health, social and economic inequalities by changing how public services work with people and communities to ensure everyone has the support, control, connections and resources needed to lead a healthy happy life.

Greater Manchester is investing in proactive, preventative and community-led support: 

• A network of welcoming and empowering Live Well centres and spaces  
• Equal, connected and consistent support that brings together the best of our public services and sustainably-funded local Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise groups  
• A Live Well workforce that collectively pulls support around individuals, families and communities  
• Integrated financial, housing, employment, well-being, health and social support as well as opportunities for social connection  
• Access from any neighbourhood and through our health service. 

Growing opportunities for everyone to Live Well. 

With an initial £10 million Implementation fund from GMCA and NHS GM, every locality in Greater Manchester is in the early phase of developing at least one Live Well Centre. These centres will be co-designed with cross-sector partners and communities to deliver a wide range of support, including financial, employment, wellbeing, health, and social connection.

Elephants Trail team of community reporters video highlights creating places of hope towards good work, their links with and support for community-led health and well-being, and the potential for solutions to spread: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S33Y5Jj-PYY 

#GMLiveWell

About Locality 

Locality supports local community organisations to be strong and successful. Our national network of over 1,800 members helps hundreds of thousands of people every week. We offer specialist advice, peer learning and campaign with members for a fairer society. Together we unlock the power of community.

About We’re Right Here campaign

The We’re Right Here campaign is a coalition driven by community leaders across the country, including in Greater Manchester, that want to see national policy change empowering local communities to shape the spaces and services in their area. 

We’re Right Here wants a national devolution programme that reaches all the way to neighbourhoods and enables local people to work with their councils and play a role in shaping public services in their communities.

We’re Right Here also want to see more local groups supported through capacity building funding so that they can become anchors in their communities.

About Local Trust  

Local Trust is a place-based funder supporting communities to transform and improve their lives and the places in which they live. We believe there is a need to put more power, resources, and decision-making into the hands of communities. We do this by trusting local people.  

Our aims are to demonstrate the value of long term, unconditional, resident-led funding, and to draw on the learning from our work delivering the Big Local programme to promote a wider transformation in the way policy makers, funders and others engage with communities and place.   

To read more of our research, please visit localtrust.org.uk    

About Big Local  

Big Local is a programme funded by The National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF). It is a unique programme that puts residents across England in control of decisions about their own lives and neighbourhoods. In 2011, the TNLCF awarded £1m to each of 150 Big Local areas.  

The Big Local programme was designed to reach communities that had not historically received Lottery money or public funding. The areas chosen were amongst the 20 per cent most deprived on the Index of Multiple Deprivation and also lacked civic assets. The hypothesis was that they were not receiving their fair share of funding because they lacked organisations and individuals with the knowledge, skills and contacts to raise it.  

From the outset, Big Local was designed to be radically different from other funding programmes. Contrasting with conventional, top down, time-limited, project-led funding, awards were made to Big Local areas on the basis that they could be spent over time, at communities’ own pace, and according to their own plans and priorities.  

Article Published: 06/06/2025 10:10 AM