Wirral-based STOs cluster to secure £11.8m additional investment.
The pre-Kindred pilot, Wirral’s Festival of Beautiful Ideas, created a vital early spotlight on Birkenhead and its potential as a creative-led, socially-trading cluster. Wirral Council and Wirral Chamber of Commerce commissioned the programme, creating an investment pot of £12,000.
The programme, in April 2017, brought people together to share ideas for making Birkenhead a better place to live and work. Craig Pennington, founder of community music venue Future Yard, took part in the Festival of Ideas as a facilitator, before the Wirral New Music Collective was one of the ideas funded. He explains how it began: “It was simple, really. We asked who were the protagonists? Who really, really believed that Birkenhead could use music and the story it tells about itself to change what Birkenhead means in the world? It was pulling those people together – some who still lived here, some who’d moved away – and having a conversation.”
The pre-Kindred pilot created a space to bring people together and imagine something better, using microgrants as a catalyst for those ideas. From that, the New Music Collective shared £3,000 to run a series of shows. “The New Music Collective was very much, ‘let’s do a run of shows’ – I’m still a strong advocate of microgrants to get something started,” says Craig. The Collective tested the water with Future Now Festival before, just three and a half years later, Future Yard, the product of Wirral New Music Collective’s vision, opened on Argyle Street.
Early recognition from the council of the power of cultural organisations in the town was vital. Craig says: ”It wasn’t a conversation with the council about culture for culture’s sake. It was about how music could drive regeneration and the economy. That was the change.”
As the industry talked about ‘Music Cities’, and the power of culture to shape places, Birkenhead built its own grassroots version. “If you anchor your regeneration framework in a permanent asset like a music venue, you can change the narrative about your town. You can tell a different story about who you are,” he adds.
Make CIC, which gained a meanwhile space in the council’s former Treasury Building as part of the Beautiful Ideas Festival programme, has now moved into its forever home, too. It bought a building next door to Future Yard in 2024, with money from Birkenhead’s £29m Town Fund allocation. Open Door Charity is opening Make’s former home as its Joy building.
Eleven Birkenhead-based STOs have collectively-received more than £700,000 investment from Kindred across three cohorts and a £29m investment in Birkenhead from the Towns Fund has been spearheaded by the social traders.
Next, attention turns to the streets outside the venue. With new cycle lanes, pedestrian crossings and lighting on the way, the Argyle Independent Quarter is taking shape as a creative, independent part of town. “In ten years’ time, it’ll be a completely different place,” admits Craig. “And it’s really important that it stays a designated area for arts and culture in the local plan.”
Future Yard has been joined by Make, Joy, Make It Happen and Start Yard to work with Wirral Council, create a manifesto and encourage food vendors, creative spaces and community businesses to cluster in what it calls an ‘urban village of creativity’.
Their links with Kindred were vital, says Craig: “All but one or two of us have been on that Kindred journey together. We’re all cut from the same cloth. We’re there to deliver on social outcomes as well as provide financial stability and sustainability and working collaboratively has been there from the start. It’s placemaking and regeneration as much as it’s cultural development.”
Social investment from Kindred was critical in taking Future Yard from dream to reality. “Kindred’s been absolutely transformational in every sense,” says Craig. “The money was important – at the right moments it made the difference – but it’s more than that. It’s a view of the world. There’s a real confidence from being surrounded by peers who are trying to achieve similar kinds of things as you, within their own discipline. It’s painting a picture of the possible,” he says.
The emergence of the Argyle Independent Quarter demonstrates the maturity of Birkenhead’s STOs, which have taken a lead in supporting other social businesses.
Their impact over the past five years has been remarkable. Wirral STOs have grown their combined turnover from £912,584 to £2,556,558 – and have created 76 new jobs. Their work demonstrates what's possible when social and creative enterprises cluster in areas where property needs new purpose.Their work demonstrates what's possible when social and creative enterprises cluster in areas where property needs new purpose.
Every place has its own unique set of skills that makes that place different – not every district wants a Tesco Metro any longer and towns and areas want to be known for the things that make them different.
We're currently working in St Helens at Street and a Half and with an amazing cluster of alternative CreativeCare providers in Knowsley; in Halton a recent Ideas Festival highlighted a network of people with ideas, whereas in Sefton our job is to support organisations like Safe Regeneration, Expanding Horizons and Sefton Council by matching growing social businesses to surplus space.
In Liverpool too, there is now a network of STO-run spaces spanning the city, while BlaST offers Liverpool and the wider region a steady stream of Black and minority ethnic entrepreneurs who have demonstrated that, with the right money and space, they grow at 45% year-on-year.
Each place, each cluster, has its own identity and is a rich source of jobs and innovation. As the region reaches for growth, home grown social entrepreneurs are making sure Liverpool City Region’s communities are connected and part of it.