The Opportunity & Place Commission

Building the future of place-based opportunity…

CO-CHAIRED BY RT HON JUSTINE GREENING, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE AND PAULA SHERRIFF, FORMER LABOUR MP FOR DEWSBURY AND SHADOW MINISTER

The Opportunity & Place Commission is a national initiative from the Purpose Coalition focused on how cities, towns, coastal communities, post-industrial places and overlooked places can become stronger local engines of opportunity and growth.

It succeeds the Breaking Down Barriers Commission and represents the next stage of the Opportunity Areas concept: moving beyond diagnosis towards a practical blueprint for how places can generate opportunity from within.

The Commission, taking its lead from the success of places like Manchester, will ask a simple but urgent question:

What does it take for a community to become a genuine opportunity system, where local people can access the skills, networks, work, confidence and support needed to thrive?

Since the conclusion of Breaking Down Barriers in January, we have been developing the next stage of this work through Purpose Lab Place, with Paula Sherriff leading the programme and us piloting constituency-based evidence sessions in places like Wolverhampton and Edinburgh.

Our work has been informed by several Purpose Lab sessions we have held across the UK, including most recently in Redcar with the Chair of the Labour Party Anna Turley MP, bringing together local voices, employers, educators and civic leaders to explore what a stronger opportunity system could look like in practice.

“Once again, we find ourselves in a moment of political change. Across the country, people in towns, coastal communities and post-industrial places are demanding a politics that sees them, listens to them and gives them a real stake in the future.

The Opportunity & Place Commission will help turn that demand into practical action. It will ask how we rebuild places by creating stronger local systems of opportunity, where businesses, educators, health services, civic leaders and communities work together to help people thrive.

We will build a practical national blueprint rooted in the experience, ambition and potential of places too often overlooked.”

Paula Sherriff, Co-Chair, Opportunity & Place Commission

The Opportunity & Place Commission will focus on the shared role of:

  • Major employers and SMEs

  • Universities, colleges and schools

  • Health institutions and local services

  • MPs and local political leaders

  • Young people and local people