Our Organisation
The Academy for Sustainable Communities (ASC) was set up in February 2005 by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and is a key part of the Government’s drive to create local communities fit for the 21st century.
A sustainable community is a place where people want to live and work now and in the future. A place that is prosperous and vibrant, that will improve everyone’s quality of life. There are seven key components of a sustainable community that together constitute a ‘common goal’.
These are:
- Governance
- Transport and Connectivity
- Services
- Environmental
- Economy
- Housing and the Built Environment
- Social and Cultural
To achieve this vision requires skills - not just those needed to build places to live but also generic skills such as community engagement, leadership, project management and partnership working.
Our goal is to build a centre of excellence for these skills and the knowledge needed to create sustainable communities. Our new approach will focus on integrated learning and the latest thinking to ensure that there are sufficient people with the right skills and knowledge to deliver and maintain these communities nationally and internationally.