Celebrating encouraging and supporting volunteers

There is plenty to celebrate about the hundreds of thousands of fabulous volunteers in the UK who have raised the money to build and improve our village and community halls, often contributing their own labour, and who continue to make them safe and warm for our use today. The vibrancy of community life in our towns and villages today owes much to these dedicated people and the activities provided under their guardianship.

In the foreword to “Halls for All” graciously provided by HRH The Princess Royal she pays tribute to these volunteers and recognises that they are too often taken for granted.  I hope in Village Halls Week others will join her in encouraging hall volunteers by expressing their support and gratitude.

With the centenary of ACRE’s national Village Halls Service David and I felt the story of how our community-owned and managed halls came into being deserved to be told, along with the change for the better our halls have brought to rural life and especially women. There are, of course, lessons to be learned.

The first is that, while schools, shops and pubs have closed, our village and community halls have survived because they are locally owned and managed. Given support they haven’t just survived but have adapted to modern demands. Many now offer community shops, community cafes, pop-up pub evenings or pre-schools while still providing activities recognisable a hundred years ago, such as concerts, amateur dramatics, cubs and WI, around 300 different uses in all.

Thanks to volunteers, the social contact and physical exercise our halls provide space for  makes life more joyous, worth celebrating, and so improves health and wellbeing. The activities they host create informal support networks and strong communities that reduce demand on the NHS and social care.  It therefore makes sound economic sense to provide financial and practical support to our halls when health and social services are more costly to deliver in rural areas. The same activities and services also help avoid climate change by reducing car journeys (CO2 emissions) and our halls now contribute economic benefits worth up to £178 million p.a., more including building work.

The question that then follows is: what is the most cost-effective means of sustaining these hugely important benefits, of providing encouragement and support when hall volunteers need it, when public finances are under pressure?  With economic growth a top Government priority any public sector financial support needs to be well-targeted. In my view there are three ways to do this. However, this must sit alongside practical support from each community, from parish and town councils and from the private sector, e.g. banks and utilities.

Firstly, volunteers need to know that financial support will be available in the years ahead if they are to embark on the complex task of modernising or improving their facilities and raising the funds. A long-term capital funding stream for improvement and rebuilding work is needed. The cost of major building projects can run into hundreds of thousands, well beyond the means of most village or community halls, yet they don’t receive the priority of other essential infrastructure and lottery, local authority and other funding is patchy and usually small.  From 2019 Defra’s Village Halls Improvement Grant Fund and Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Fund supported hundreds of projects targeted at addressing climate change, improving health and wellbeing and the local economy.

Over half our village and community halls in England are more than 80 years old so nationwide the need for investment in their facilities is a continuing one. A substantial amount of ongoing public funding is needed to ensure the longevity of that investment. Also vital to the upkeep of these buildings is partnership between funders and the involvement of parish and town councils.

Secondly, the modest public sector finance required to maintain the ACRE Network advice services for halls needs to be protected so that volunteers, new and old, can access support and guidance about hall management when needed and do not give up efforts.

The book shows just how important this service has been to the development, modernisation and survival of Halls over the last century, including during Covid.  Advisers provide a portal  to the experience of halls and trained advisers throughout the country and to publications  from ACRE on a wide range of subjects. A key challenge nowadays is the recruitment of new trustees, affecting over half of halls, and support from ACRE Network Advisers can help here: almost anyone can become a hall trustee, given  guidance. People often say that making this contribution to their community has given them fulfilment, friendships and fun.

Finally, we need to support volunteers by addressing the fiscal barriers that undermine their efforts, such as the levy of 20% VAT on improvement works and VAT at the 20% business level on energy supplies for larger halls.

As a society we overlook the need to offer practical support to encourage our community hall volunteers at our peril. The survival of our Halls and all the benefits they bring to community life and the rural economy should be central to public policy from top to bottom.

I hope the combination of Village Halls Week and the publication of the book will open up discussion at every level about how best to support and encourage our precious hall volunteers.

‘Halls for All’ draws on examples from every English county and we are very grateful to those volunteers who kindly provided material. We hope it will encourage others to make available the story of their own halls.

Publication has been generously sponsored by Carnegie UK in recognition of their pioneering support for halls. Copies can be ordered via local bookshops, ACRE Network members or online at Amberley Publishers

“The story of how our community-owned and managed halls came into being deserved to be told. Thanks to volunteers the social and physical aspects of activities and events halls provide make life more joyous, worth celebrating, and so improves health and wellbeing.”

Louise Beaton, OBE