We’re back to the 80’s again with this image from Wolverhampton in 1984 – was the photographer inspired by Flashdance? Would that PPE pass muster today?
JD Fabrications took out a loan to help them buy equipment and kit. They are still running today, providing services as Structural Steel, Stainless Steel and Aluminium Fabricators, and Welding Specialists.
There’s something very tangible about lending a business money to buy a whacking great piece of machinery.
Ever wondered why businesses that rent our machinery are called ‘plant hire’? Apparently it comes from the verb ‘to plant’ in the sense that we ‘plant our feet’ on the ground and the heavy objects are also planted on the ground, for the hirer to use in their own way.
In 1983, we lent to KER Plant in Northampton, so they could add to their stock of hireable equipment. We’re not sure if the loan funded this digger particularly. KER are still in business, – if you need a skip in Northamptonshire, they can help you out.
We’re really pleased to share the announcement that the Community Shares Booster Fund has relaunched this week in England with new investment from Power to Change.
And not only that, the Community Shares market has hit an amazing milestone of £200m raised through Community Shares. Fantastic news!
We are incredibly proud to be involved in the Community Shares Booster Fund which supports new and existing community businesses in England that are at all stages of a community share issue. Support is available through development grants, matched equity up to £25k, and where relevant specialist business development support is available.
Whether you are at the earliest of early stages of exploring if it’s the right choice, through to planning a community share issue, being ready to launch, or in exceptional cases, recently launched – the Fund can help.
Paperwork and info has been updated – have a look at the new fund guidance and a new application process
Not sure whether to apply, or if it’s right for you? There’s a webinar coming up on the 8th June – book your place here to ask any and all questions.
Booster Fund is only for groups in England. Click here for support for community shares in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Today is the 27th International Day of Cooperatives recognised by the United Nations and the 99th International Cooperative Day.
Cooperation is a human value. It’s easy to be scared as we (hopefully) come out of Covid – there’s been a lot to be scared about and for some, fear can mean turning inward.
We’ve loved seeing how co-ops and their members, and volunteer-led mutual aid groups, have turned outwards and looked to see who they can help, and how, as Covid has affected so much of our lives since March 2020. In 2021, we’re celebrating what unites us, rather than divides us as we edge towards the future. Hope, community, the desire to rebuild better, together.
Our Covid Stories showcase some of the most amazing stories of resilience and co-operation by our members and clients. Who doesn’t love the idea of Zoom wine tastings and radio kit being ferried around people’s homes so that volunteers can still broadcast to community groups?
We celebrate co-operation every day of the year. We hope the 1ooth International Cooperative Day next year has Covid to look back on, and another 100 years of co-operation and community to look forward to.
Do you want to be part of the shift towards more co-operative, democratic business?
Why not join us, this Co-op Fortnight?
Here at Co-operative and Community Finance, we are the lender for social purpose. We exist to help people take control of their economic lives and create social benefit.
We exclusively serve the co-operative and social enterprise sector, and for almost fifty years we have supported hundreds of businesses ranging from small community‑run enterprises to large award‑winning organisations.
Through the provision of accessible finance we have helped to create and preserve thousands of jobs within the social economy and supported the set up of many new and innovative co-operatives, employee buyouts, and community enterprises.
Since our inception, we have lent over £15m, and through our management of standalone funds, including the Co-op Loan Fund, we have lent over £25m to hundreds of employee-owned businesses, worker co-ops and community businesses of all shapes, sizes, and sectors.
Millions of people are members of a co-op. They, like us, are being the change they want to see in the world – building a better future. Do you want to, too? Join us.
Thank you to everyone who took part in our Annual Survey! We’re delighted to say that the results are in and they make for enjoyable reading after what’s been a difficult year all round.
This year we sent out our survey with sister company the Co-op Loan Fund and received our highest ever number of responses. From these, 73% of respondents rated their overall experience of Co-operative and Community Finance as ‘Very Good’ and 23% selected ‘Good’ giving us an impressive TripAdvisor style score of 4.7 out of 5.
And nearly 70% were confident in saying they would be Very Likely or Likely to use our services again in future.
But numbers are one thing; we are always thrilled to read personal comments and these are delightful.
‘As far as I am concerned your service is as good as it can get.’
‘I can’t offer any suggestions to improve it.’
‘Been very helpful and stayed in touch during Covid-19 crisis.’
‘You do an amazing job with the small, dedicated team who are so dedicated to co-op development and support.’
It’s a genuine pleasure to work with organisations building a better future. Thanks to all who responded and who work with us today, have done before, and will do in future. And happy reading to the lucky – anonymous – respondent who was the winner of our Co-operative Bookstore voucher!
Most people know Co-op and Community Finance as the lender for social purpose, providing loan finance to co-ops, employee-owned and community-owned businesses for nearly 50 years. But that’s not all we do!
We also provide a comprehensive range of fund management services to organisations that share our values. We provide tailored loan management, back office, consultancy and project work to meet individual needs that save time and money and help partners meet their objectives and maximise impact. One such organisation is The Co-op Foundation; in the Summer of 2017, we won a competitive tender to support them in designing and delivering their Community Spaces interest-free loans fund which ran until 2020.
The Co-op Foundation is the Co-op’s charity. It helps people challenge inequality and co-operate for change, so they can share a fairer future.
Its interest-free loans programme was launched to help community enterprises increase their trading activity so they could reduce their reliance on grants and become more financially sustainable. This, in turn, would enable them to improve community spaces longer-term. Making the loans interest-free made them accessible for organisations who may not have considered repayable finance before. For the Co-op Foundation, making loans rather than grants meant that the funding could be recycled, supporting our own financial sustainability.
Over the two years to 2020, we helped the Foundation design its community spaces loans fund, its application and appraisal processes, and then went on to support them in assessing over 60 applications resulting in more than £2.1 million awarded in interest-free loans and grants UK wide, helping community spaces all over the UK build their trading activities and become more financially sustainable. Spaces supported included a community-run lido in Cornwall, a village hall in the Scottish Hebrides and a co-operative farm in Northern Ireland. Grangetown United, a community centre in the north east of England, received £80,000 of investment to help turn a derelict building into a vibrant hub for local people. Watch their story here.
This year, as more of the Foundation’s portfolio began to pay back their loans, following a repayment holiday, the Foundation approached Co-op and Community Finance (CCF) to manage the ‘back office’. Effectively CCF handle the financial administration and practicalities of the loan portfolio such as collecting payments, dealing with changes to terms, dealing with missed payments, rescheduling the profile of a loan, providing statements, etc… For the foundation, outsourcing this element of administration means they can get on with helping more communities.
Ella Smyth, Funding and Partnerships Manager said:
“Over the past four years, we’ve built a really positive relationship with Co-op and Community Finance. Their expertise in lending to co-operatives and social enterprise helped us make our interest-free loans for Community Spaces fund the best it could be.”
“We’re pleased to be entering into a new phase of our partnership. Their financial administration management of our Community Spaces loans fund will free up our time so we can focus on supporting partners throughout the lifetime of their fund, ultimately allowing them to use their loans in the best way to help communities thrive. ”
Subscribe to the Co-op Foundation blog to find out first when support is next available
Over the last 48 years we’ve developed highly effective systems of financial management and control which we can offer to other lenders, public bodies and charitable foundations. Using our services will almost certainly save time and money and avoid reinventing the wheel.
Our clients include Big Issue Invest, Co-op Loan Fund, Radical Routes, Co-op Foundation and the Ministry for Housing Communities & Local Government. We also manage funds that have been donated to us for a specific purpose.
Could we help you this way? For more information visit our Services page
Twenty-two years ago, in March 1999, the International Treaty to ban Landmines, which had been in the making since the 1980 ‘Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects’, came into effect.
The Ottawa Treaty aims to eliminate anti-personnel land mines around the world. Astonishingly, even though 164 countries have signed the Treaty, China, the Russian Federation and the USA have not.
Land mines are used in war and are considered particularly damaging as they are indiscriminate, and remain present and active after conflict, unless dangerous, painstaking and expensive clearance work is done. It is estimated that up to 20,000 people are killed in times of peace every year while countless more – mostly civilians, mostly children – are maimed
Our Ethical Policy makes it clear that we will not lend to any organisation involved with the production or sale of weapons. Further, we seek to ensure that we avoid any business dealings with such companies (and others). Co-operatives like us, and other community owned and focused businesses, have values at the heart of them. We believe that people and planet matter, and so we put people and planet before profit, wanting to do well for our members, our business, ourselves, by doing good.
We believe that a better world is possible and so we are working, constantly, to build the world we want to see. If you are too, and you’re looking to grow, let’s talk.
It goes without saying now that 2020 has been *quite* a year. Beyond ‘unprecedented’ and ‘challenging’ this has been one that none of us could have predicted and we’re still working our way through changes and shifts daily. You, like us, are probably thinking that this is here to stay for a while and we’re all trying to find whatever the ‘new normal’ is.
There have certainly been changes for us. While things are moving more now than they were earlier in the year, overall, enquiries remain slow, a pattern that we’ve heard, anecdotally, repeated across the sector for those not delivering government backed loans. Happily, there are glimmers of light and some positive stories coming out of all the adversity. We recently published a story about two new Community Pubs opening their doors in October, having received loan finance from us, in spite of likely tighter lockdown restrictions for some areas.
We’re seeing a much more varied mix of enquiries and applications for loans than we have in a while – more from Community Led Housing schemes, plenty of pubs, and the sector is seeing a steady trickle of new community energy schemes. Community housing and renewable energy schemes seem to benefit from a longer-term outlook and typically stronger rates of return on investment. We are really behind green initiatives and clean energy and we’d love to hear from you if you’re in this area and seeking funds. We’re glad to see some unlocking of projects that stalled way back in spring, and it’s genuinely heartening and inspiring to hear from co-ops and community-owned organisations who are more determined than ever to progress plans, in spite of the impact Covid continues to have.
Across the sector, and in recent weeks, the number of Community Shares issues launched has increased significantly. Offers that were in development before Covid, combined with more recent developments, has meant several offers have come to the market. We don’t know what the future holds but we’re glad to see green shoots! Scotland for example has seen new community share offers launched using a new Development Trust Association Scotland hybrid multi-stakeholder model with more in the pipeline and Wales Co-op centre announced the continuation of their Community Shares support programme.
As a lender who has been operating in the co-operative and community space for almost 5o years, it’s been interesting to see the speed at which emergency funds flowed – heartening that they were unlocked so quickly for many, although some organisations have slipped through the cracks and mainstream banks left some out in the cold. But we’re minded to note that some of the organisations offered and securing finance are historically are not used to taking on debt. Small charities and social enterprises who have taken out a Bounce Back Loan (BBL) may find they struggle to have enough trading income to repay. We also heard concerns across the social investment sector that the BBL relatively short term of 5 years would command too high a monthly repayment after the initial payment free period – consequently, these payment terms have now been extended by the government but, if your asset backed co-op or community business still needs to consider even longer term debt solutions, do get in touch.
A very real concern for us, and many of our clients, is – the very necessary – social distancing in many premises remains. This is really difficult or impossible to manage for certain organisations and there is real concern for community venues, including community pubs, that if restrictions continue, reaching a level of trading viability will be a real challenge from now until spring next year. As a result, we may see many spaces and venues choosing to mothball until well into the New Year, or close altogether. This is not a happy-making thought but it’s one we completely understand and we are here to continue our support wherever we can.
Should your co-operative or community owned business, shop, pub or social enterprise be looking for a conversation about what or where next, we’d urge you to talk to us. We’re here for the sector and the future and we genuinely want to help – there’s no obligation to proceed with a loan but if we can help you understand your options, we’d love to. Please do get in touch.
On Christmas Eve an award-winning plant nursery, 60% of whose workers have disabilities, completed the purchase of Victorian lodge house which it plans to convert into a traditional tea room with the help of a loan from Co-operative & Community Finance.
For Bishopwearmouth Co-operative, in Sunderland, this was the perfect end to a very successful year when the relatively new business won the Social Enterprise Award at the Sunderland Echo Portfolio 2018 business awards.
The co-operative has been running a 5,200m2 garden centre near the city centre since April 2017. It also provides landscaping and floristry services. It offers work-based placements and volunteering opportunities to adults with learning disabilities, physical disabilities and enduring mental health needs. There are currently 16 employees with disabilities and 10 additional staff.
Buying the Victorian lodge house, which is adjacent to the garden centre, will allow Bishopwearmouth Co-operative to start a new income stream by running a traditional tea room for local residents and visitors to the garden centre and nearby crematorium.
“There is a lot of work to be done,” said managing director Shaun Donnelly. “New flooring, new wiring, new kitchen, new toilets and making the whole premises accessible. There is a lovely walled garden that needs landscaping. With luck the Tea Room should be open in June.”
The project has the full support of Sunderland City Council which has been nurturing Bishopwearmouth for many years. It had been operating ‘at arms length’ from the local authority since 2009 but in March 2016 it took the important step of registering as a co-operative community interest company.
“We want everyone to feel that they have ownership of the venture and have a say in what happens,” said Shaun. “We want to have a good cross section of the staff on the board. Also we want it to be a lasting asset to the community.”
Ian Rothwell, Investment Manager at Co-operative & Community Finance, said “When I visited Bishopwearmouth I was struck by how passionate everyone was about their work and also about being part of a co-op. It is a great example of the positive effect of giving workers of all abilities an equal say.”
[pictured at the Sunderland Echo Portfolio 2018 business awards on 1 November 2018, (from left) Shaun Donnelly, Nicola McDonald and David Hider from Bishopwearmouth Co-operative and Paul McEldon, chief executive of North East Business and Innovation Centre.]