Land that works for us

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The Social Purpose of Land Framework (SPLF) reimagines how the stewardship of public land can prioritise social outcomes, community voices, and local capacity building.

Councils are stewards of the public estate. They are responsible for providing – and protecting – the key assets that make our neighbourhoods feel like home. Parks, homes, leisure centres, libraries, roads; these buildings and spaces underpin the social infrastructure that bring us meaning, connection, and wellbeing.

Yet the long tail of austerity has pushed councils across the UK to develop their commercial asset management skills. While the primary role of local governments is to delivery statutory services, significant reductions in central government funding over the last 15 years paired with growing demand for services driven by the intersecting crises of affordability, the climate emergency, an aging population, and the lasting impacts of the pandemic means that councils’ property portfolios are increasingly called on to fund essential services.

This shift in emphasis for councils — from service provider to asset manager — changes our relationship to the land and buildings that make up our neighbourhoods. Under sustained financial pressure, places that once served as anchors of community life can struggle to survive within an economic system that measures success primarily by the ability to generate income.

The Social Purpose of Land Framework (SPLF) recognises that the value of land is defined not only by what it earns, but by what it enables. It prioritises the social, cultural, and environmental contributions that land and buildings make to civic life. The public estate is a cornerstone of community, where people come together to learn, celebrate, connect, and play. In a time of deep political division and declining trust in institutions, public land can act – literally and figuratively – as common ground.

As the largest landowner and steward of assets in the borough, Southwark Council manages these spaces as a shared inheritance. Responsible stewardship matters because once public land is sold or its purpose is reduced to revenue generation, that broader civic value can be difficult to recover. By embedding community voices early in the decision-making process, defining local need locally, and making explicit the social purposes of land, the SPLF can help build a richer more inclusive vision of what public land can offer.

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