News Archive
Building a New Economy with Stir To Action
We are absolutely thrilled to see the amazing Stir to Action New Economy Programme workshops starting again. Following on from a successful first year in 2018/19, which saw workshops run in Bristol, Dorset, London and Oxford, this new academic year sees the workshops extend geographically, to include Newcastle, Bradford, Plymouth and Dorset as well as […]
What are Community Shares?
Have you heard of Community Shares? Interested – but not sure what they mean? This fantastic video from Community Shares Scotland is a great way to understand what Community Shares are all about – as they say in it, ‘If your community believes in something then investing in Community Shares can make it happen’. ‘Community […]
Our reflections on The Co-op Economy 2019
7215 independent co-ops in the UK 233,733 people employed by co-ops. 13.7 million members. Annual turnover £37.7 billion. We are always proud to be part of the vibrant co-operative economy, but when reports like Co-operatives UK ‘The Co-op Economy 2019’ come out and reveal numbers like these, it’s a wonderful opportunity to take a moment, […]
Village pub gives housing plan the boot
The people of a small village in rural Herefordshire are eagerly awaiting the re-opening of their pub after they saved it from redevelopment and secured its future by buying it for the local community. With the substantial renovation nearly finished [writing at 23 August 2019] and the tenants installed, The Boot Inn at Orleton near […]
We’re behind worker ownership
You may well have heard that Co-operatives UK and the Employee Ownership Association want to create #1MillionOwners by 2020. To support this, they are calling on the UK government to invest £2m in the upcoming spending review to support a voluntary expansion of employee and worker-owned businesses. We are fully and wholeheartedly behind this. Co-operatives and worker/employee owned businesses create […]
2019 Borrower Survey Results
‘We feel understood. We feel the empathy. We feel respected’ The results are in from our 2019 borrower Survey and we couldn’t be more proud. An impressive 92% rated us as Very Good, up from 76% in 2018, and 88% said that if they needed a further loan, it would be ‘Very likely’ or ‘Likely’ […]
Mutual Aid – a Day at HM Treasury
On the 10th July, we were kindly invited by Co-operatives UK to a round table mutual workshop event with the aim of “Creating the conditions for people to form and develop successful, innovative coops and mutuals” hosted by HM Treasury to help feed into British Business Bank policy. We gathered on a hot day in […]
Celebrating 100 years at Plunkett Foundation AGM
Here at Co-operative and Community Finance, we’ve worked with the Plunkett Foundation for many years – in 2006 we were partners in a project which was then called Village Core. This was a programme where business support was provided by Plunkett, the local community raised finance, we provided a loan and with financial support from […]
“Like two cheeks of the same backside”
A community pub in Devon that has been run successfully by volunteers for eight years, was today (19 July) bought freehold by the local community. The Stoke Canon Inn, just five miles from Exeter, is now owned by a community benefit society with 140 members who have collectively invested £120,000. This investment, together with loans […]
Happy birthday to The Spotted Cow and Calf!
Community pubs are bucking the national trend – while almost a quarter of privately-owned pubs have shut down since 2008 community pubs have a 100% success rate. We see the benefits they bring to communities. So often, they are much, much more than a pub, they are the beating heart of a village. The Spotted Cow at Holbrook […]