Plymouth 2040: The Flourishing Neighbourhoods of a Social Enterprise City

Imagine Plymouth in 2040. A thriving, resilient urban centre built on a bedrock of social enterprises and co-operative businesses. An economy that focusses on wellbeing. An end to intergenerational poverty. An end to entrenched racism and sexism.
 
This future isn't a pipe dream; the foundations were being built in 2025. It is a practical vision where more people own, govern, and benefit from the organizations that shape their lives. By becoming the norm, social businesses have fundamentally reshaped the city, making it an international exemplar of social enterprise and co-operative action.

​Neighbourhoods as Economic Hubs
 
In 2040, the traditional city centre is complemented by vibrant, self-sufficient neighbourhoods. Plymstock, St Budeaux, Stoke, Stonehouse, Devonport and others are still places to live and they are also economic and social hubs.
 
Inspired by social enterprises such as Nudge Community Builders, Four Greens Community Trust and Millfields Trust, each neighbourhood boasts a Community Land Trust, managing genuinely affordable housing and commercial spaces for local start-ups. These businesses are supported by The Land Exchange - a locally owned co-op - that acquires assets of community value and holds them in trust until local community groups can take over and run them.
 
Many corner shops are now worker-owned co-op groceries, stocking produce from local growers collectives, which manage vertical farms in disused industrial units and bring food in from rural Devon and Cornish food co-ops. We are a gold standard, Sustainable Food City thanks to the campaigning work of Food Plymouth.
 
This economic transformation is driven by Community Business Zones and Neighbourhood Repayable Investment Funds. Instead of relying on national and local grants, businesses contribute a small percentage of profits to a revolving fund, governed by an elected local citizens assembly. This fund provides low-interest loans to new social enterprises and co-ops. The Community Business Zones provide advice and incentives for start-ups alongside business rate reliefs. Further tax schemes aim to reduce the gender and race pay gap and promote a circular economy where sharing and repair begin to replace disposable consumption.
 
There is an important place for private initiative and personal aspiration: purposeful, family and sole trader businesses thrive in local and city wide networks and people with bright ideas are supported to put them into practice with the help of local business advice programmes.
The Social Enterprise Core
 
Several of the city’s major employers have also undergone a shift. The former high street banks are replaced by the Plymouth Social Bank which is owned by its savers and borrowers. It prioritizes local investment over international speculation.
 
Essential services, from transport to care to food to waste, are delivered by user and worker-owned mutuals. For example, Access Plymouth has developed a city bus network, ‘The Plymouth Rider', which is owned by its staff and passengers, leading to improved routes, cheaper fares, better service and accessibility and fair wages for the drivers.
 
Education has embraced this model too. Many new schools operate as multi-stakeholder co-operatives, involving teachers, parents, and community partners in governance; ensuring the curriculum reflects the needs of a social economy. Alongside a creative and broad programme, they teach financial literacy, collaborative decision-making, and responsible entrepreneurial skills for social good. 
 
All three universities in Plymouth are key partners, mentoring cultural and creative co-operative and social enterprise start-ups. They link cutting edge knowledge and research with local businesses. The universities make the social advantage a core part of the local economy's DNA as they educate the social business leaders of the future.
 
Air quality has improved thanks to shared mobility and community energy schemes. Plymouth Energy Community has developed solar, wind and tidal systems that power people’s cars and houses. The disparity between the richest and poorest neighbourhoods has significantly narrowed as profits are shared more equitably.
 
Resilience and Well-Being
 
The result of this social enterprise and co-op culture is tangible: a more resilient, more equal, greener, fairer, kinder and happier city. With local ownership, businesses are less likely to abandon Plymouth in an economic downturn and money circulates for longer in the local economy. People are paid better and feel more engaged in the decisions that affect their lives.
 
The health, social and childcare industries have been transformed. These services are now delivered via social enterprises and co-ops that reinvest their profits in the community. A structural rethink of commissioning led to legislation that ringfenced certain public sector contracts. This ensured true social value was gained from tax-payers money and removed the profit motive from these foundational services.
 
The focus has shifted from extracting wealth to creating well-being. Public spaces are better maintained because they are jointly owned and loved by the community. Life expectancy is up and is more balanced across the city thanks to economic policies that promote well-being and better joining up of business and health strategies.
 
Plymouth in 2040 proves that economics, wellbeing and the environment are not mutually exclusive. It is a city where transactions are social acts, business decisions are rooted in the community, and the people of the city are the owners of their own destiny. 
 
This is not a fantasy - every one of these ideas is already being delivered by a social enterprise, co-op or community business somewhere in Plymouth, in the wider UK or across the world.