Residents have developed a Development Trust to help it regenerate the neighbourhood. This was in response to a failure to invest from central government or the City Council in its future. Moseley has an image of being a wealthy suburb; parts of it are but, there are some areas of deprivation as well, particularly in the north Moseley area. Residents want to lead the future development of their neighbourhood, through a combination of asset ownership, social, economic and environmental projects.
The Moseley Exchange is a new project that has been developed to improve the social and economic situation in Moseley. Our aim is to create wealth for the community and build stronger links between the different residents in our community. Normally these two aims are dealt with separately but we’re trying to combine them and that’s a challenge.
Another successful outcome for us would be the development of a cluster of creative businesses based in Moseley. We feel one of Moseley’s strengths is the concentration of people living in the neighbourhood who work in the creative sector. It’s always had a reputation for Artists but that has never been recognised by the City Council as an economic asset for the City or the region. We feel the neighbourhood needs to build on the theme of Moseley as a “creative village”.
Moseley Community Development Trust is part of larger movement across the country. There are now 400 Development Trusts in the UK and they’re all working to help regenerate their neighbourhood; but not in the traditional way.
Development Trusts are often called “community anchor organisations” and they are:
community owned and led
cultivating enterprise
developing community assets
transforming communities for good
Tony Thapar – Moseley Development Trust Co-ordinator