Local Property Partnerships

We are part of a national project exploring how we can transform town centre buildings for long-term local benefit. This involves working in Darnall, Sheffield, and collaborating with local partners to buy underused buildings and turn them into thriving neighbourhood hubs.

What is the project?

This project is called Local Property Partnerships: Pilot Programme 2024-2027. It resources local leaders in five neighbourhoods across the UK to work with communities and shift buildings into long term local ownership.

What will we be doing?

Brightbox will be working with a range of stakeholders to identify, buy and transform underused buildings in Darnall, so they serve the long-term needs and interests of local residents. Decision making will be led by Darnall based organisations and residents, to ensure that this project actually benefits them.

How will we do it?

We will work with local organisations and residents in Darnall to co-create a strategy and vision for neighbourhood hubs in the area.
We will use Platform Places' network and resources to support the early implementation and development of our co-created strategy and vision.
We will develop an arts, culture & heritage programme in Darnall to strengthen relationships, increase opportunities for skills development, and support the area to thrive.
We will create an advisory group, called The Land Justice Collective, to help ensure this work honours are values and commitment to systems change.

What is the Land Justice Collective?

The Land Justice Collective (LJC) is an advisory group made up of Black and brown activists, artists and community leaders fighting for land justice in Sheffield and across the UK. Since 2025 we have been meeting regularly to share ideas & experiences, explore somatic & dreamscaping exercises and attend site visits across the country. This helps to enhance our collective bank of resources, skills and imagination so we can more effectively strategise how to steward buildings and land in Sheffield while retaining our values. Our approach rejects a scarcity mindset, which encourages us to take on damaging, short-term, survivalist approaches to organising, and actively embraces an abundancy mindset instead. We have the people, tools and knowledge to make a significant change. We need to come together and harness our collective power. This might mean skills and asset swaps, sharing spaces, democratising wealth and community care. Through our work with the Land Justice Collective we hope to demonstrate a new way of working for global majority organisers in Sheffield and beyond.

Brightbox was built on the idea that everyone should have access to community, development opportunities and decision making. We have co-designed makerspaces for years, supporting people to come together, share their interests, learn new skills and ultimately become who they want to be. This project is an evolution of that original vision. We are taking the principle of makerspaces and applying it to long-term systems change, with community at the heart of decision making. Beyond individual workshops and programmes, we seek to buy under-used buildings and land alongside marginalised communities so we can create self-sustaining neighbourhood hubs. By owning the space that we occupy local people can be secure, autonomous and empowered. This mission is driven by a commitment to land justice. It requires a wholesale shift in structures. This project will therefore involve experimenting with alternative models for governance and finance that build the foundations for a more liberated future. We are at the beginning of this journey. There will be a lot to learn. But by forming relationships with values-aligned organisations and residents, we are well placed to take on this ambitious task. This is about building autonomy, power and decision making within neighbourhoods

Alex Rajinder Mason

Project Lead

Who is funding the project?

This project is funded by National Lottery Community Fund and led by Platform Places. For more information, visit the Platform Places website.

How Can I Get Involved?

Get in touch with us at alex@brightbox.org.uk to find out more about the project and see how you can get involved.