support

A community shop opened in brand new premises in Wiltshire in December following a loan from Co-operative & Community Finance.

The Ashton Keynes Village Shop, which is run by a community co-operative, was developed after a privately owned store faced closure when the owner wished to retire.

Following a survey from 1600 local residents 85% of responses indicated that the village shop was either very of extremely important to them.

Dave Sheppard, Treasurer of The Ashton Keynes Village Shop, said: “It was clear that we had to do something to make sure that we preserved the existence of the shop. Everything we have done so far has been supported by the local residents, businesses, and Parish Council.”

The existing premises was set to be returned to residential use, so plans for an Annexe to the Village Hall were put into place, with the agreement that the Village Shop can use it for as long as it wants.

The new shop which opened for trading on 14 December is situated on the main road through the village next to a bus stop and very close to the local school.

Much of the materials for the building, which is an annexe on the end of the village hall, were donated by local companies.

The shop is run by a team of paid staff members and volunteers and offers conveniences such as groceries sourced locally where possible, freshly bake cakes, newspapers’ and lotto tickets. The Management Board of the shop are volunteers.

In the future the co-operative hopes to harness excess heat created by the grocery chillers into a heating system for the village hall.

The Renewable Energy Co-operative (R-ECO) is helping to a major regeneration project in Cornwall to become carbon neutral by installing a range of sustainable energy technologies including solar photovoltaics.

The project called Heartlands is a £35m transformation of 19 acres of old tin mine land into a cultural space for community and visitors. On completion, the development will feature a working tin mine, business units, community facilities, performance and event areas, and residential accommodation.

Abraham Cambridge, technical director of R-ECO, said: “Heartlands is an amazingly innovative and ground breaking project. We are witnessing the transformation of a symbol of the bygone days of Cornish tin mining, and replacing it with a delectable selection of sustainable technologies.”

Co-operative & Community Finance made a loan to R-ECO to be used for working capital as the co-op takes on more work. Formed in 2008, it now has 10 employee-members who all share an interest in green energy and have a background in the building trade.

Prior to the work on the Heartlands development R-ECO celebrated the completion of its first community project, which saw the installation of a PV system on a theatre roof in Cornwall. Its work resulted in a 70% reduction in the theatre’s energy bill.

Other work includes the installation of a ground mounted system at a farm in Oxfordshire and various projects involving a factory roof, police station and agricultural building in the south west of the country.

The co-operative is passionate about driving the renewable energy industry forward. R-ECO is a pioneer of solar farms in the country, and won a business innovation award in 2010.

Abraham Cambridge said: “We had a desire to provide a more ethical, affordable and accessible service to the public.”

With this purpose in mind, R-ECO is working to alleviate fuel poverty, which is common in areas throughout the UK and especially in the south west.

R-ECO has big plans and far reaching social goals in mind for the future. The members desire to help set up other worker co-operatives under the same model.

They hope to partner with community organisations to provide free electricity for schools and community centres, and plan to use various profits to install more energy units on additional community sites.

R-ECO has expanded out of Cornwall by setting up a new office in the Reading area. It also plans to diversify into installing solar thermal units and wind turbines. The members hope more renewable energy co-ops will grow out of the company.

Heartlands will be opened later this year including a working model of a tin mine engine house, conference facilities and low cost office space.

A loan from Co-operative & Community Finance to a determined Somerset community benefit society has helped save the only shop and Post Office in a rural village.

The Hinton St George & Locality Rural Community Services (HRCS)) and its 335 members took over the management of the shop in Hinton St George on 30 July 2011. The shop, which was due to close following the retirement of the previous owners, has been saved by willing residents who wanted to secure its future and has now been renamed Our Shop.

The shop is now part of the Village CORE Programme, a partnership between the Plunkett Foundation and Co-operative & Community Finance dedicated to supporting communities looking to set up and run a community-owned rural shop.

Emma Way, Vice-Chairman of the HRCS, said: “Essentially it is the only shop in the village. The nearest supermarket is a six mile round trip, access is difficult as most roads are only single tracks and the bus service is poor. We also have a very high elderly population, many of whom find it difficult to get out to do their shopping and rely on the shop for their independence and combating social isolation. The village really values the shop, it is the hub of the village.”

Support to keep the shop open was high. In 2010 a survey was carried out showing that 99% of residents thought the shop was important, and 96% were prepared to support efforts to keep it open.

The prospective closure led to the development of the HRCS, a community benefit society. The aim of the HRCS was to bring together the community, raise funds and develop a business plan for a community shop. So far, an amazing £425,000 has been raised from a combination of community fundraising, grants and loans and fundraising continues to complete the financing of the development of the premises.

Emma Way said: “It is a one stop shop for villagers that can’t travel elsewhere for groceries. It is a convenience store but it is much more, it sells alcohol, sweets and tobacco, but also has deli counter and homemade preserves.”

The HRCS hope to expand the business in the future by increasing the floor area and developing the Our Shop brand: Our biscuits, Our wines, jams and marmalades.

Ian Rothwell, from Co-operative & Community Finance, says, “The Village CORE programme has proved to be tremendously successful. It has been great working with village communities and seeing the energy and enthusiasm they have generated to create a successful enterprise.”

We are helping one of the pioneers of solar power systems to take on larger contracts.

The Renewable Energy Co-operative (R-ECO) in Cornwall installs renewable energy systems for domestic, commercial and community clients. It specialises in ground and roof mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) systems.

R-ECO is currently working on its biggest contract to date; at Heartlands, Cornwall, a major £35m transformation of 19 acres of old tin mine land into a cultural space for community and visitors. On completion, the development will feature a working tin mine, business units, community facilities, performance and event areas, and residential accommodation. R-ECO is working with Heartlands to achieve a zero-carbon development.

R-ECO has recently celebrated the completion of its first community project, which saw the installation of a PV system on a theatre roof in Cornwall. Its work resulted in a 70% reduction in the theatre’s energy bill. Other recent work includes the installation of a ground mounted system at a farm in Oxfordshire and various projects involving a factory roof, police station and agricultural building in the south west of the country.

We have made a loan to R-ECO to be used for working capital as the co-op takes on more work. Formed in 2008, it now has 10 employee-members who all share an interest in green energy and have a background in the building trade.

The co-operative is passionate about driving the renewable energy industry forward. R-ECO is a pioneer of solar farms in the country, and last year won a business innovation award. The aim of this social and environmental co-operative is to “allow people throughout society to benefit from renewable energy,” said Abe Cambridge, R-ECO technical director and member, “we had a desire to provide a more ethical, affordable and accessible service to the public.” With this purpose in mind, R-ECO is working to alleviate fuel poverty, which is common in areas throughout the UK and especially in the South West.

R-ECO has big plans and far reaching social goals in mind for the future. The members desire to help set up other worker co-operatives under the same model. They hope to partner with community organisations to provide free electricity for schools and community centres, and plan to use various profits to install more energy units on additional community sites.

R-ECO has expanded out of Cornwall by setting up a new office in the Reading area. It also plans to diversify into installing solar thermal units and wind turbines. The members hope more renewable energy co-ops will grow out of the company.

www.r-eco.co.uk

One of the longest running co-operative enterprise centres in the UK is going to be rehoused in premises constructed from recycled shipping containers bought with a loan we provided.

The Hendon Co-op Centre in Sunderland is being relocated a short distance into new, larger, innovative and environmental premises. For over 25 years the centre has been home to the North East England’s most successful social enterprise development agency, SES (Sustainable Enterprise Strategies), and a number of well known co-operative businesses including the multi-award winning Sunderland Home Care Associates.

The new centre will be constructed from 40 reconditioned shipping containers fabricated into rooms of various sizes. It will provide new offices and training rooms for SES and nearly 1,000 square metres of managed workspace for local enterprises. Already 60% of the new office space has been reserved. The rents will provide SES with a sustainable source of income for some of its core activities.

The building will incorporate a range of environmentally sensitive features including roof gardens, permeable hard landscaping (to reduce rainwater surges in drains) and heat exchange pumps.

“We chose this unusual method of construction because it’s sustainable and appropriate,” said Mark Heskett Saddington, a director of SES. “SES is committed to the principle of reduce, re-use and recycle and of course Sunderland has a long association with shipping. It’s also a relatively quick and low cost construction method.”
Work on site is scheduled to start at the end of August and the containers are expected to be installed during October. SES is planning to move into its new offices in December.

“Things are moving quickly now but it’s taken a long time to get here,” said Mark. “We started planning this three years ago.”

The project is being financed from a variety of sources including the sale of the original Hendon Co-op Centre, grants from the European Regional Development Fund and Sunderland City Council and loans from us, The Co-operative Loan Fund and The Co-operative Bank.

SES is the most recent name of the organisation that has provided specialist co-operative development (among other services) to the people of Sunderland since 1983. With a combination of values, vision and very hard work it has endured while many enterprise agencies have come and gone. It also has an office in North Shields and provides services across Tyne & Wear. It co-ordinates the work of The Co-operative Enterprise Hub throughout the North East region.

www.ses.coop

We have made a second loan to a training provider, this time to assist its delivery of a major government contract to help people from ethnic minorities find work.

The Twist Partnership (Twist) is a social enterprise that delivers learning and training programmes to individuals, groups and organisations. Twist’s aim is to empower its participants by promoting leadership through learning, thereby improving their personal and professional development.

Established in 2004, Twist provides custom-made workshops, development programmes and consultancy services to a wide range of clients. Most recently they have worked with schools, ethnic minorities, refugees and young people at risk, as well as businesses, government and housing organisations.

Twist’s mission is to break down barriers. The enterprise has formed a consortium of 10 community partners, called the London Outreach Alliance, which supports ethnic minorities at a community level. The consortium can provide for eight languages throughout their offices, and offer support from those partners who share their community’s beliefs and background. The partners also work in religious and community centres. The main area of work has been in helping people from these ethnic minority groups find work.

We have released our second loan to Twist, this time to provide help to deliver the government’s new Work Programme. Twist has gained a first tier contract with a major government service provider serving East London, called Seetec (the main contractor), which provides welfare to work and skills training programmes. Few community organisations have been selected to deliver such a large contract, a value of £1m, and as such the consortium is responsible to provide employment support to over 2,000 people over the next five years.

The loan will assist Twist in maintaining the task of transforming from a service delivery organisation to delivering to a government contract. One of the first uses of our aid was to employ more full time staff, transform the IT systems, and work towards government quality standards, which must match up to the likes of large companies.

The director of Twist, Shankara Angadi, praised us by saying: “The loan has been absolutely instrumental in managing the bid. Without it we would not have been able to run the programme. Now we can help people in the community find work, pay salaries, and develop the community groups as well – since our consortium partners will have to meet the same high government standards. We will be more successful at finding work; in one month we’ve interviewed 100 people and so far found jobs for many of them.

“Many of the people we support don’t speak English, and don’t have prepared CVs. Our partners can communicate with them in Albanian or Somali, we can directly involve these people because we know them well through their grass-roots organisations. This new contract could be the start of something big, it could be a pioneering new way of working with the third sector.”

Twist is an award-winning enterprise and its programmes have been very effective. In March this year it won the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence due to its valuable work with young people. Twist also designed a Corporate Responsibility project for a law firm that resulted in solicitors mentoring youth who were at risk of offending or dropping out of school. Twist has delivered programmes with the London Development Agency that involved working with many refugees and attracted over £400,000 in funds.

We gave our first loan to Twist in 2007 to help with developing its programmes.

www.twist.org.uk

A unique service that helps providers of social housing to reduce costs and improve energy efficiency is able to continue and expand thanks to a loan from Co-operative & Community Finance.

Greater London Energy Efficiency Network (GLEEN) has worked with a range of social landlords to develop a web-based management system to issue Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs). This system has greatly reduced the survey and administrative costs of providing EPCs and it is also providing a growing body of accurate data for strategic planning.
“For example, we can provide local authorities and other social landlords with accurate estimates of the amount of loft insulation or the number of replacement boilers that will be required in their housing stock over the next five years,” said Managing Director Tony Rose.

Since GLEEN launched the EPC manager service in October 2008 it has issued over 20,000 certificates. It has contracts with 20 social landlords in London and the south east with a total housing stock of some 250,000 properties. Now GLEEN is looking to expand the service and is tendering for contracts in other regions and in Scotland and Wales.

The financial peaks and troughs of delivering large contracts and the difficulties of managing expansion were putting pressure on GLEEN’s cash flow. We have provided a loan to increase working capital.

GLEEN is a not-for-profit agency that works in partnership with local authorities and social landlords to promote home energy efficiency and affordable warmth. Since it was set up in 1999 GLEEN has developed a number of projects and services to assist providers of social housing and benefit their tenants.

“We focus almost exclusively on social housing,” said Tony Rose. “Our aim is to provide good quality services for social housing that will help to increase energy efficiency and reduce fuel poverty.

“We are very well connected in London but we are confident that we could run this service just as well anywhere in the country.”

Tony Rose said: “Ian Taylor says that we are ‘high on morals and low on profit’. I really appreciate the financial help and sound advice he’s given us. It helps to keep us strong.”

A loan from us along with the hard work of a Cheshire community has produced over £100,000 to ensure their one precious shop doesn’t close.

The only shop in the village of Gawsworth, Cheshire, will re-opened at 11am on 10 March, placing it happily in community hands. The community bought the property and refurbished the small shop that has been serving the village for over 40 years. Local people decided to take action when the previous owner attempted last year to close the shop and convert it into a residential property.

Following a complete refurbishment, the shop is re-opening with new equipment, a modern look and an air of excitement. Over 30 volunteers have offered to operate the shop and the generous help from local tradesmen has demonstrated the unity of the people of Gawsworth.

The shop is at the heart of the village, and is relied upon by the community. If it were to close it would leave the villagers, many of whom are elderly, without a shop within a two mile radius. Also the lack of timely, convenient public transport only compounded the problem, as the only option is an hourly bus service.

The campaign to save the shop started in mid 2010 with a public consultation and community survey. In a short time the support received was tremendous – the villagers raised over £60,000 from a community share issue, with over 150 people buying shares. Donations from 40 villagers, a loan from Co-operative & Community Finance, grants and advice from the Village CORE Programme*, and grants from local charities resulted in over £100,000 being raised in less than six months toward saving the shop.

“The saving of the Gawsworth shop has really brought the village community together. It has been a great effort, the shop is a focal point for the community. It’s directly opposite the primary school, and close to social housing,”said Stephen Hamer, a pioneer behind the campaign and shareholder. It will be a general convenience store offering household goods, a post-point parcel service, a range of deli products and freshly-made sandwiches, and will try to source local produce. As a community hub and information centre, it will be open every day of the week.

* The Village CORE Programme is a three-year support programme managed by the Plunkett Foundation in partnership with the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Co-operative & Community Finance and supported by the LankellyChase Foundation.It provides financial start-up packages and advisory support to communities looking to set up a community-owned rural shop.

Somerset Wood Recycling combines the environmental benefits of reuse and recycling with the social impact of providing training and opportunities for disadvantaged people.

A loan from us is being used to part-finance the installation of a biomass heater in the warehouse of a wood recycling social enterprise. The commercial wood-burning stove will warm the employees and trainees at Somerset Wood Recycling in Weston-super-Mare and dispose of the waste wood they cannot reuse or recycle.

Somerset Wood Recycling is one of a growing network of community wood recycling projects that combine the environmental benefits of reuse and recycling with the social impact of providing training and opportunities for disadvantaged people.

Somerset Wood Recycling collects waste wood and timber from businesses, building sites and domestic premises in Weston-super-Mare and the surrounding area. The material is taken to its warehouse where it is sorted and used in the most environmentally beneficial way. At least 80% of the wood collected is reused; about half of it is sold as timber for DIY or woodworking, and much of the rest is used to make a range of products for sale including benches, plant boxes and bird tables. Anything that cannot be reused is either sold as firewood or used to fuel the biomass heater.

Somerset Wood Recycling also derives a significant income from the Skills Funding Agency and other organisations for providing training and work experience.

“We have about 30 trainees and volunteers working with us, and that’s the primary purpose of the project,” said manager Tristan Tudor, who was one of the two people who set it up in 2006. “It’s not so much about saving wood from going to waste. Although that’s what we do it’s just the vehicle that makes the project happen so we can work with people.

“We provide training and volunteering opportunities to people with different needs. Some of them have had drug or alcohol addiction problems, some of them have learning difficulties, some have mental health issues and some have been unemployed for a long time.”

Last year the enterprise negotiated a two-year contract with North Somerset Council for the repair for outdoor furniture and some grounds maintenance. This gave the social enterprise the confidence to apply for a loan from Co-operative & Community Finance and to develop plans for further expansion. “We want to grow the project so we can help more people,” Tristan said. “At a time when everyone in the public sector is looking for ways of saving money and delivering services more effectively I think we are well placed to pick up more work.”