SEEE and Cambridge University Judge Business School came together to run a one day conference in May 2026 at ARU Cambridge.
As place-based projects and funding continue to dominate the headlines, this event explored how collaboration, local leadership, and innovative strategies can keep wealth and opportunity within local places.
Practitioners, academics, local authorities, and leaders of anchor institutions all came together to explore how Community Wealth Building (CWB) can strengthen local economies and communities across the East of England.
The plenary talks and workshops gave a balance of theoretical approaches and evidence with real-life examples and practical tools for communities. We discussed:
- Anchor Institutions and collaboration for long term wealth building
- Community Entrepreneurship and diverse communities
- Universities & Communities working together
- Building CWB in our Places – county, local, urban and rural settings
Below you can read more about the speakers who featured at the conference.
Andrew Brady, Honorary Visiting Fellow from the School of Management at ARU jointly organised the conference with SEEE and is keen to hear from others who are working in the arena of Community Wealth Building or who want to see how it can be applied to an urban or rural area. Andrew commented on the conference:
‘As far as I know last week’s #CWBEast event sponsored by Judge Business School was the first in our region to explore Community Wealth Building on such a scale. 72 delegates were treated to keynotes from Helen Haugh, Sarah Longlands, Nigel Carter, and Matthew Brown, as well as workshops looking at anchor institutions, place-based initiatives, civic universities and community enterprise.
I felt some key questions that came from the event were:
- Is CWB too ‘political’ for a rural, and (small c) conservative region?
- How do we ensure community voices are at the centre of this policy debate?
- Should there be a CWB Network to share good practice and resources across our region?
We’d welcome your comments on these observations and if you’d like to talk to SEEE about working on this together, or using our Local Cubed tool for Community Wealth Building, we’d love to hear from you’.
Community Wealth Building and SEEE’s projects in this area
SEEE is keen to explore how collaboration, local leadership, and innovative strategies can ensure wealth and opportunity remain within local communities.
How can communities retain more wealth, opportunity, and power locally?
There are many challenges and opportunities in keeping resources and decision-making grounded locally and through our recent Vision Programme we have been working in a concentrated way in two Cambridgeshire locations to see how Community Wealth Building can offer practical tools and strategies so that prosperity is not only generated, but also retained within the communities that need it most. Our work has focused in 2025-26 in Whittlesey (rural pilot project) and Millfield Peterborough (an urban pilot project).
We call it Local Cubed³ – exploring how prosperity and community cohesion can be multiplied through Community Wealth Building. Download our information sheet below for more information.
What’s happening next?
Following the CWB in the East conference SEEE plans to continue this work through a webinar in June 2026 looking at CWB in Scotland. Further details to follow.
Speakers Biogs from the CWB in the East Conference (May 2026):
Helen Haugh is Associate Professor, Community Enterprise, and research director for the Centre for Social Innovation at Cambridge Judge Business School. Her research interests include social and community entrepreneurship, social innovation, and business ethics. Helen’s research projects investigate hybrid organizing, community asset ownership, and asset-based development. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, Academy of Management Discoveries and Organization Studies.
Dr Sarah Longlands is the Chief Executive of the Centre for Local Economies (CLES) based in the UK. CLES is a think and do tank in the UK dedicated to development of local economies and the lead organisation in the UK for community wealth building, Sarah is an expert in regional and local economies with a PhD in Urban Studies from the University of Glasgow. She is an advocate for economic and social justice and the creation of places that enable people to live good lives. Her work is deeply influenced by her experience of growing up in Northern Ireland. Before joining CLES she worked for the Institute of Public Policy Research in the North of England (IPPR North). She began her career working in local government in the North of England.
Nigel Carter is a community development worker and researcher committed to building capacity for and resourcing grass-roots community groups in Oxford and its surroundings. Nigel has worked in community development in Nottingham, London, Brighton and Cork City-Ireland. Nigel is a co-founder of Oxford Community Action a Multi-Ethnic grass-roots community organisation which is also a member of the Owned By Oxford Community Wealth Building Partnership.
Matthew Brown has been a Labour Councillor in Preston since 2002 and Leader since 2018. He is the driving force behind the ‘Preston Model’ of Community Wealth Building and has been making headlines at a national level for some time for his transformative approach to local economic development.
Partnership working with other local anchor institutions is central to Matthew’s vision for community wealth building.
The range of initiatives championed by Matthew Brown in Preston since 2012 are practical and transformative alternatives to austerity and disinvestment. Together they are retaining and developing local wealth, strengthening local communities and extending economic democracy.
Nicky Stevenson is a freelance consultant and researcher and has worked in the social enterprise sector for over twenty years, with a particular interest in social impact measurement. Nicky was one of the founders of SEEE and has been a board member ever since and is also company secretary.
Kevin Garrod is Head of the Anchor Programme and Local Value Lead at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust
Dr Carmen Smith
Since joining the University of Cambridge in 2018, Carmen has supported the Cambridge Zero Policy Forum at the Centre for Science and Policy, and Postgraduate internships at the School of Biological Sciences, as well as conducting research on Community Enterprises as Research Associate and Honorary Fellow for the Cambridge Judge Business School. Carmen completed her Doctorate at the University of Bath and following this, worked at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development in Geneva, contributing to the Sustainable Development Programme and implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. She also assisted Prof. Tim Jackson at the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity to research and promote Sustainable Prosperity.
Dr Tabish Zaman is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Business and Law at ARU Cambridge
Tabish has been exploring realms of innovation and its adoption within the National Health Service (NHS) UK. His research is at the intersect of socio-cognitive theory exploring innovation adoption and entrepreneurship and digital transformation. Integrated within the context of healthcare and public services, his core interest underlines the complexity of team cognition, performance, leadership and strategy.
Andy Brady has worked in enterprise education for over 25 years, in a variety of settings, predominantly at Anglia Ruskin University, where he headed up charity and social enterprise leadership development for over 20 years. He has also worked internationally in Ukraine and Georgia, and with Cambridge Judge Business School as lead enterprise coach for the prestigious Ariane de Rothschild Fellowship, which brought together Jewish and Muslim social entrepreneurs to develop their business plans. He has worked extensively with students to help develop and present their social enterprise ideas, and helped to set up the regional network Social Enterprise East of England, where he has also been a director and chair for several years.
Deb Lee became Managing Director of Social Enterprise East of England in September 2021, aiming to make a real difference for members and the sector. With experience in both not-for-profit and corporate sectors, she has led teams at the British Trust for Ornithology, Essex Wildlife Trust, and a coffee company in East Africa.
