Citizens UK

Citizens UK We are the UK’s biggest, most diverse, and most effective people-powered alliance. The national home of Community Organising.

Our goal is to build the power of communities to work together for the common good.

20/08/2026

Across the country, a growing network of Students’ Unions are joining Citizens UK to win change on the issues that matter to them. 👩‍🎓

As members of our people-powered alliance, each Students’ Union gets access to:
- coaching and campaign development by a dedicated organiser,
- community organising training,
- and leadership development.

Last week, Tom Snape, Senior Organiser for Birmingham, led our annual Students' Union community organising residential at Aston Students' Union.

Students’ Union staff and officers came together to think about how community organising could help their union have an even greater impact alongside their wider communities. 🎇

Interested in working with us as a Students’ Union?

Find out how to get involved: https://www.citizensuk.org/join/join-us-as-a-student-union/

19/08/2026

At Citizens UK, our values shape not just what we do, but how we do it. 🫶

From developing local leaders to driving nationwide change, our work to overcome injustice is underpinned by six core values: Solidarity, kindness, courage, integrity, inclusion and relationality.

They guide how we organise, how we build relationships, and how we work together to create lasting change and build trust across difference in our communities.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be diving into what each of these values mean to our staff in practice.

First up, hear from our Senior Organiser, Tom Snape, about why kindness matters in our work. 💛

18/08/2026

Charities become members of Citizens UK to build a better, fairer society. 💙

By building positive relationships between communities, politicians and businesses, we work with nonprofits like Shpresa Programme to ensure communities are involved in finding the best solution to local issues.

Shpresa joined Citizens UK more than 20 years ago, in 2004, after members of their board attended a Citizens UK Assembly and saw the power of people coming together to win change.

Since joining, they have grown and continue to achieve their goal of supporting Albanian-speaking refugees and migrants in the UK.

Working together has led to wins like removing financial barriers for families to apply for their children’s British Citizenship.

By joining Citizens UK, we’ll support you through the steps to identify your team, equip your organisation with training, and connect you to the power holders who can implement change. The hard work will be yours, but we’re here to support you and take action.

You too can write what happens next. ✍️

Work with us to drive community-led solutions that work for everyone - Join us as a charity: https://www.citizensuk.org/join/join-us-as-a-charity/

Children at Old Oak Primary School, part of West London Citizens, have been campaigning to make the environment better f...
12/08/2026

Children at Old Oak Primary School, part of West London Citizens, have been campaigning to make the environment better for people and nature - turning their anger into art. 🎨

Pupils surveyed the parents at their school and discovered that most are struggling with high water bills - with some families facing increases of up to £200. Leaks and outages that last for days also mean that residents are forced to travel miles to find bottled water.

Recent data shows that the majority of the rivers and lakes in England are in poor ecological condition. Polluted rivers are running low and hundreds of fish dying as a result of the recent heatwave and water contamination.

Knowing that they have the ability to shape the world around them, these young leaders used their art to ask local politicians to address London's polluted rivers, soaring bills and poor infrastructure.

Read the full article - https://www.citizensuk.org/chapters/west-london/west-london-news/school-children-turn-anger-into-art-to-call-for-lower-bills-and-cleaner-rivers/

11/08/2026

The Living Wage was a ‘grassroots movement connecting churches, synagogues, mosques, trade unionists, low-paid workers, collectives and community groups to campaign for a real Living Wage’.

It was great to hear Anoosh Chakelian mention the success of the Living Wage campaign on The New Statesman's UK Politics podcast this week.

This year marks 25 years of the Living Wage movement, which has grown from a small grassroots movement to a widely recognised standard for good work. More than 16,000 employers across the UK have chosen to pay the real Living Wage, helping to lift the pay of hundreds of thousands of workers each year. 🙌

Together, these commitments have put at least £4.2 billion back into the pockets of low-paid workers. What began as a local campaign has become a national movement with real, measurable impact on people’s lives.

What is a Citizens UK Accountability Assembly, and how does it help us win change? 🤔Citizens UK is a membership organisa...
10/08/2026

What is a Citizens UK Accountability Assembly, and how does it help us win change? 🤔

Citizens UK is a membership organisation of over 450 civil society institutions, including schools, faith/community groups, and parent groups.

Accountability assemblies are one of the ways in which we take action to create social change and hold those responsible to account.

They are among the most exciting, dynamic people-led events in the country, bringing together our member institutions, communities, and local leaders to make change on the issues that matter to people.

Assemblies provide an opportunity to secure public commitments from, build relationships with, and hold politicians, business leaders and other decision-makers to account for the promises they make.

In 2010, it was an accountability assembly that raised up low-waged cleaners and enabled them to make a real Living Wage a mainstream idea. The following year, the Living Wage UK was set up.

We believe that politics is far too important to be left to just the politicians – everyday people can and should shape the world around them.

Find out more: https://www.citizensuk.org/about-us/news/what-is-a-citizens-uk-accountability-assembly/

Young people in Burnham-On-Sea are stepping up and taking to the streets to make their community safer. Broken glass, n...
07/08/2026

Young people in Burnham-On-Sea are stepping up and taking to the streets to make their community safer.

Broken glass, needles in local parks, underage smoking and crime are just a few of the issues that they face growing up in the area.

To address these concerns and improve safety across the town, more than 20 young Citizens UK Somerset leaders from Waffle Hub Youth Club carried out a neighbourhood walk alongside town councillor Lesley Millard.

The walk formed part of the group's Youth Leadership Academy - A Citizens UK programme designed to help young residents develop the skills to identify and make change on the shared issues they care most about.

Everyday people are too often not involved in finding the best solution to local issues, but this is how you get a seat at the table - by standing together to create the changes you want to see.

Read the article: https://www.burnham-on-sea.com/news/burnham-on-sea-youngsters-hi

💬 “When I talk to my peers, we’re always talking about how it’s impossible to move out and actually own affordable housi...
24/07/2026

💬 “When I talk to my peers, we’re always talking about how it’s impossible to move out and actually own affordable housing. Being able to stay in Shadwell is really important to me”, Nazifa, a community leader from London Citizens.

For ten years, community leaders across London Citizens have been campaigning to bring affordable housing to Cable Street in Shadwell, East London. In 2018, with London CLT they secured a bid to turn a disused Transport for London (TfL) site into 41 community land trust homes, a green space and community room, and were granted additional funding in 2020.

Since then, the land transfer has been paused, which means remaining funding secured is also unavailable. Despite this, community leaders continue to push forward the campaign for affordable housing.

On 1st July 2026, the year of the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, hundreds of community leaders showed their support for CLT homes in Shadwell.

💬 Davina Bacon, a community organiser at St-George-in-the-East church said: “As one local leader said to me, we’ve been going for 10 years, we’ll go another 10 if we have to. That’s how much this project means to us.”

📃 Read the full article on The Big Issue: https://ow.ly/jjIn50Zshm8

✍️ Show your support for the campaign by signing the pledge: https://ow.ly/kweL50Zshm7

22/07/2026

“The Living Wage campaign was born out of the experiences of people in East London who were working for these large banks but were finding it really difficult to make ends meet.”

We’re celebrating 25 years of the Living Wage movement with our series: "25 Years of the Living Wage: A Movement in Pictures.” 📽️

The series explores the Living Wage movement’s archives through the stories of the people who helped build the campaign from its beginning in 2001.

Listen to community organiser and Tyne & Wear Citizens leader Dr Simon Mason as he reflects on the HSBC AGM action in 2001, which led to HSBC and Barclays banks becoming Living Wage employers.

Dr Simon Mason got involved in community organising in 1996 when he worked as a vicar in Plaistow and North Canning Town, in East London.

In the early days of the Living Wage movement, one strand of the campaign was to get banks to adopt the Living Wage. HSBC bank had recently moved its HQ to Canary Wharf, and community leaders planned to buy shares and attend their AGM in 2001. By speaking about the Living Wage at the AGM, Simon Mason was instrumental in HSBC becoming a Living Wage employer a few years later, with other banks following.

Over the past 25 years, the Living Wage movement has secured more than £2 billion in additional wages, lifting hundreds of thousands of people out of in-work poverty.

Keep an eye out for more stories and reflections from the everyday people driving this movement forward and championing work that works for everyone. 🌟

17/07/2026

In 2001, the Living Wage movement began with a simple yet effective idea: that work should provide people with the means to lead a decent life.

🎉 25 years on, that idea has grown into one of the most successful civil society movements of the 21st century.

To mark the anniversary, Living Wage UK has published a new impact report, ‘A Real Living Wage: 25 Years In’, which celebrates the role of countless community leaders, campaigners and workers who made the case for change, and the thousands of employers paying a wage that reflects the real cost of living.

There are now 16,000+ Living Wage employers, covering every region and industry in the UK, with £4.1 billion transferred to workers’ pockets by Living Wage employers since the start of the movement.

💬 Matthew Bolton, Chief Executive and Lead Organiser at Citizens UK, said: “Behind the numbers in this report are the real, tangible differences it has made to people’s lives: families no longer having to struggle to afford their groceries, parents being able to buy new school uniforms for their children at the start of the school year, and the peace of mind that comes from being able to pay bills on time.”

👉 Read the full report: https://www.livingwage.org.uk/real-living-wage-25-years-0

👉 Read the coverage by Journal: https://workplacejournal.co.uk/2026/07/living-wage-momentum-delivers-4-1bn-in-extra-pay-for-workers-over-25-year-history/

Address

Jacquard Point 1 And 3, Tapestry Way
London
E12FJ

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Citizens UK posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organisation

Send a message to Citizens UK:

Shortcuts

Featured

Share

Category