The York Model: Community wealth Matthew Brown, Sarah Evans, Martin O'Neill, Sue Williamson and Sam Leach (chair)
Event details
Could York and North Yorkshire become a national beacon for community wealth building, reshaping who owns, controls and benefits from the local economy? What if more of the wealth generated in the region stayed here, building stronger communities, supporting good work and growing shared assets for the future?
Join members of the Mayoral Community Wealth Building Commission to explore a bold vision for a fairer, more resilient economy - one rooted in local ownership, social enterprise and community-led action. Hear how the Commission is laying the foundations for change and what it will take to turn that ambition into reality.
Our speakers include:
- Councillor Matthew Brown, Leader of Preston City Council and a Senior Fellow for the Promotion of Community Wealth Building in the UK at The Democracy Collaborative, who championed the 'Preston model', an innovative economic strategy designed to counter austerity through community wealth building
- Sarah Evans, Associate Director at the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES), an expert in social economy development, social value and the development of anchor networks, who is leading a number of projects across York and North Yorkshire
- Martin O’Neill, a Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of York and co-author of The Case for Community Wealth Building.
- Sue Williamson, Founder and CEO of Tang Hall SMART CIC and Tang Hall Employment.
The session is chaired by Sam Leach, Chair of the Mayoral Community Wealth Building Commission and Development Director at Spark York.
This event is part of the Festival Focus series ‘Mapping Wealth, Ownership and Place in York’ presented in partnership with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. You may also be interested in ‘Rowntree Revisited: 125 years on’ taking place on Friday 12 June from 11am to 12.30pm.
About the Joseph Rowntree Foundation
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) is an independent social change organisation whose mission is to speed up and support the transition to a future free from poverty, in which people and planet can flourish.
Image credit: M Ramírez/Alamy
About the speakers
Councillor Matthew Brown is Leader of Preston City Council and a Senior Fellow for the Promotion of Community Wealth Building in the UK at The Democracy Collaborative. He has been widely credited as the driving force behind the ‘Preston model’, an economic strategy at the city and county level that presents a comprehensive, interlinked approach to community wealth building as a practical and transformative alternative to austerity and disinvestment. From humble beginnings over a decade ago the Preston Model has inspired a conversation across the country and beyond around how Community Wealth Building can offer a very different type of local and regional economy that after 40 years of neo-liberal economics begins to put ownership, democracy and resilience to strengthen communities and deliver transformative change.
Sarah Evans is an Associate Director (Regional Economics, Wales Lead) at the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES). Sarah leads CLES’s work in Wales, alongside managing other projects across the UK and Ireland. Her areas of specialism include social economy development, social value and the development of anchor networks. Sarah is leading a number of projects across York and North Yorkshire, including mapping the region’s social economy, supporting the Mayoral Commission on Community Wealth Building, and delivering trailblazer-funded work to review the role of anchor organisations and good work. Sarah has contributed to several government task and finish groups, including the Business Wales Task and Finish Group, and is currently a member of the Irish Government’s Working Group on social procurement.
Sam Leach is Chair of the Mayoral Community Wealth Building Commission, Development Director at Spark York and a member of the York and North Yorkshire Business Board.
Martin O’Neill is a Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of York, where he has taught since 2010. Martin works on a number of issues at the intersection of political philosophy, political economy, and public policy. He is the co-author (with Joe Guinan) of The Case for Community Wealth Building (Polity Press, 2019), and from 2025-26 served as a member of Mayor David Skaith's Community Wealth Building Commission for York and North Yorkshire. Martin is also member of the Trustee Board of the Democracy Collaborative, a 'think-and-do' tank based in Washington DC which works on different models for building a more democratic economy. In 2026 he was elected as Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.
Sue Williamson is the Founder and CEO of Tang Hall SMART CIC and Tang Hall Employment, as well as a Director (the Chair) of the York Social Enterprise Coalition CIC (YSEC). She is curious about people-centred approaches towards system change and innovations that provide solutions to society's problems.
Partners
.png)
