Community centres are a core and enduring part of the UK's social infrastructure. They are hubs of social connection, stewards of health and wellbeing, vital partners in their local ecosystems and important physical assets that communities can depend on.

Our report sets out what can be achieved if we celebrate, sustain and reimagine community centres for the future. It makes the case for meaningful investment, effort and focus at both the national and local level to dismantle the challenges standing in their way. It calls for their true value to be recognised and nurtured.

New Local's Sara Masters, Crispin Truman from the Rayne Trust, the Sutton Centre's Sam Kirkby and Josie Cowgill from Trinity Rooms Community Hub are interviewed by Katy Oglethorpe about the report's key ideas.

Visit www.newlocal.org.uk/wherepeoplemeet for the full report.

Our country needs to build more. More houses are required to meet current and rising demand. High streets and town centres need regeneration. Our infrastructure is not keeping pace with the structural requirements of our economy and society.

In this podcast, we delve into new research arguing that the key to unlocking our fraught planning system is to give communities more power and influence to shape local development. What can the councils and the government do to make this happen in time to fulfil Labour's housebuilding goals?

Join New Local's Imran Hashmi and Katy Oglethorpe in conversation, along with appearances from some of the case studies featured in the research - people-led regeneration of empty houses in Grimsby, the UK's first housing co-op for women aged over 50, and the district council giving residents a blank sheet for regeneration. We also speak to Zo Hoida, whose law firm Browne Jacobson supported the research.

From giving residents a blank sheet to determine the council's priorities, to making statutory consultation processes interactive and fun, Test Valley Borough Council is pushing the envelope on community engagement.

And it's paying off. Councillors are braver and more effective. Senior managers are better leaders. There's more consensus and less cynicism among residents. And the community's voice now sits at the heart of everything the council does.

Adam Lent visited leader Phil North, chief executive Andy Ferrier, deputy chief executive Salena Mulhere and community engagement officer Imogen Colley to ask how – and why – they're becoming a community-powered council.