Community, Environment

Slowly the geography of corporate community involvement is starting to shift. Unlike the USA, the UK has been characterised by very local engagement around specific major sites and a central team at corporate HQ with a budget for national activity. That mirrors the disposition of state power in highly centralised Britain. But Welsh and Scottish devolution and the beginnings of a regional tier in the UK, all due to go live in the first half of 1999, mean the balance is beginning to shift.

The signs are companies are starting to react. For example, active corporate engagement is growing in the debate about regeneration and competitiveness in the big cities, especially London. The arrival on the scene of elected mayors will further tilt UK practice towards the American model of active civic engagement. So will the new regional dimension to the distribution of National Lottery cash (and the consequent demands for matched funding).

For individual companies, this opens up a new set of key audiences at regional and big city level which existing structures of corporate HQ and product line management are ill equipped to service. Downsized community affairs departments cannot be expected to cope without additional resources.

Corporate Citizenship Briefing, issue no: 43 - December, 1998