Brent Cross Town: Building community

The challenge

Brent Cross Town is an £8 billion project to develop a new neighbourhood in northwest London. The scheme is being delivered by Related Argent and Barnet Council. As a partnership literally building a community, they aim to work with local people in a participatory way to understand local challenges and create sustainable solutions. They were keen to get going with this approach right from the start of the project which was when they approached ActionFunder.

The solution: Brent Cross Town Community Fund

Brent Cross Town launched their first fund with ActionFunder back in 2018. Since then, they’ve seen the launch of the ActionFunder platform as it is today and used that new tech to reach and support a broad range of grassroots non-profits. Their Social Value team have used the platform to save time on the admin and paperwork involved in community engagement, so that they can focus on what counts: building partnerships and getting out into the communities they’re developing.

To make their impact as sustainable as possible, Brent Cross Town have included key community stakeholders in deciding which projects to fund, including local councillors, residents, and charity leads. They’ve also commissioned ActionFunder to deliver community capacity building workshops for the non-profits that receive grants. The team has received overwhelmingly positive responses from the stakeholders involved in the funding process and from others they share the work with, including investors, incoming tenants, and delivery partners.

“The Brent Cross Town Community Grants programme is one of our most highly valued community initiatives and we know this because of the overwhelmingly positive response we receive from the broad range of stakeholders we share our successes with – from local residents and community organisations to incoming tenants, investors and delivery partners.“

• Davinder Chaggar, Social Value Manager, Related Argent

“ActionFunder has enabled us to discover and support a really diverse selection of local projects which are already making a positive difference to the local community in and around Brent Cross Town. The shortlisting approach has provided opportunities for Related Argent to engage with local councillors and community leaders through a transparent, fair, well-designed judging process.“

• Morwenna Hall, Partner and Chief Operating Officer, Related Argent