Blogs

George Ogier, Impact Officer at Plunkett UK, shares his reflections on the recent EDI Special Interest Group meeting held on 9 September. Plunkett UK recently hosted the third event in a series designed to shine a light on both equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and tackling climate change. This session [...]

Misty Bower, Plunkett’s Community Business Adviser, highlights 3 Key Lessons from our Webinar, ‘How to Be Great at Community Engagement’ Did you know that community engagement is essential for a community business to succeed? The Better Business Report 2024 quantifies its significance, stating that ‘the number of people involved’ is a [...]

Hear from Kayla Manga, who spent a week with our communications team, gaining insight into the community business sector and the impact of Plunkett's support. Work experience at Plunkett was one of the most insightful experiences I have ever had. Not only did it give me the opportunity to ease [...]

How Plunkett lives its values through action, collaboration, and a commitment to building a stronger, more inclusive community-owned sector. According to our latest Impact Report, the community-owned sector has grown by an impressive 70% over the past decade. Today, Plunkett supports more than 800 trading community-owned businesses, with a further 800 [...]

David Lydiat, Head of External Affairs, reflects on a recent visit to community businesses in South West England, including a meeting with Caroline Voaden MP at a thriving community pub in Strete To better understand the vital role of community businesses - and the support they need - I was [...]

Plunkett’s Community Business Manager, Diane Cameron, explores what environmental action means in rural communities According to our latest Impact Report, 96% of rural community businesses took some form of climate action over the past year. To those of us working at Plunkett, this is no surprise: the interest and proactivity [...]

We’re proud to celebrate Almondsbury and Appleton Community Shops, both recently honoured with The King’s Award for Voluntary Service - the highest national accolade awarded to volunteer-led groups across the UK. At Plunkett, we know that volunteers are the driving force behind the success of community-owned businesses. People’s passion, commitment, and [...]

Plunkett's Impact Officer, George Ogier, explores what equity, diversity, and inclusion means for rural communities The World Health Organisation defines equity in part as: “the absence of unfair, avoidable or remediable differences among groups of people”. The idea of striving to ensure that everyone is afforded the same opportunities should [...]

Hear from Patrick Marks, who reflects on his week of work experience with us, and what he learnt about the community business sector As a student going into my second year of A levels with an interest in doing history at University (particularly in social history), work experience at Plunkett [...]

The Rural Community Business Awards is a major highlight in Plunkett’s annual calendar. Get the lowdown and reaction from the 2025 event, which celebrated our members' tenacity and commitment to making a difference in their communities. Rural community businesses’ extraordinary impact was honoured during a jubilant awards event, hosted by [...]