Consultancy & Projects
People powered, better, greener neighbourhoods.
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We partner with change-makers to deliver programmes and services that tackle social challenges, regenerate nature, and create fairer, more balanced economic growth.
We can help if you are:
- Starting something new – helping you understand the change you want to make, the finances and feasibility of your idea.
- An established organisation – supporting you to test, develop or improve a new product or service, generate income, clarify your impact, sharpen your purpose, or deepen engagement with your community.
- A partnership or initiative – working with you on the development and delivery of larger-scale projects, place-based regeneration and neighbourhood transformation.
As specialists in community asset development, transition and economic development; community power, ownership and action are at the heart of everything we do. By building strong relationships, we work together to create lasting change.
Place Making & Regeneration.
We partner with communities to unlock their full potential, creating sustainable places that thrive for generations. Through collaborative approaches spanning grassroots initiatives to strategic policy work, we help transform neighborhoods, develop new towns, and support nature recovery. Our community-centered process ensures local voices actively shape what matters most, building social, environmental, and economic wealth that benefits everyone.
Our Work With Organisations
We work with organisations to optimise income and maximise their impact. From community enterprise to public sector partnerships, we help organisations to create greater social, environmental and economic value.
Consultancy Projects Team
Learn about the team behind the Consultancy Projects at Real Ideas.
Tom is an impact and social economy specialist with over 10 years’ experience of social enterprise, community business, charities, NGOs, and local government, with work spanning start-ups, regeneration, heritage, culture, and environment.
He is Programme Lead for the Nature and Neighbourhoods team, concentrating on inclusive economics, community power, asset development, and place change. With expertise in impact management, business planning, ownership and governance, investment & funding, and carbon reduction planning.
He has a human geography degree, is an accredited project management practitioner, and holds voluntary positions in local community organisations.
Amy is a social economy and community engagement specialist with over 15 years' experience working on project, event, and buildings management across the cultural, public, charitable, and social enterprise sectors.
As Community Lead for the Nature and Neighbourhoods team, her work concentrates on creative, inclusive, and co-produced practices in community engagement and capacity building. Embedding community power and voice into place-based regeneration and organisational development. With expertise in business planning, impact management, communications, funding and investment and asset-based approaches to community development.
Amy has a first-class honours degree in Fine Art, is a director for Plymouth Music Collective and founder/director of We Are Here Music Promotions.
Ed Whitelaw is a social economist and entrepreneur with some 30 years’ experience working across sectors including culture, education, regeneration, the environment, and economic development. He heads up the Nature and Neighbourhoods Team, specialising in community asset development, community power, and neighbourhood transformation. He has an environmental degree, a master’s in social economics, and is a qualified teacher. He is also a founding director of the ever-present and ebullient Plymouth Social Enterprise Network. Ed is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, and a Churchill Fellow.