News
What a difference a year makes!
A year ago, Southampton’s favourite bookshop, co-operatively run October Books, moved into their new premises. We were delighted to support them in their aims and we’ve caught up with them recently to see what a difference a year makes. October Books has been serving the good people of Southampton with radical and alternative books, wholefoods […]
Applications are open for Community Business Trade Up Programme
Applications are now open for a brilliant support programme for community-focused projects, funded by our friends Power To Change and the School for Social Entrepreneurs Do you run an organisation or project that exists to improve your local neighbourhood, village or town? Do you run it like a business, but re-invest profits to benefit your local […]
More Than A Pub heads to London!
Next week we will be part of a fantastic More Than a Pub event in London hosted by The Ivy House, community-owned since 2013. The event will cover all things related to community pubs. Tickets are free and travel bursaries are available. You will be able to hear from three fabulous, and very different, community […]
From victim to survivor – from tenant to landlord
One of the oldest organisations in Yorkshire that supports survivors of domestic abuse and sexual exploitation has bought a town centre office building thanks to the co-operation of several responsible finance organisations. On 22 October Rotherham Rise completed the purchase of the Grade II listed building in Rotherham High Street that it already occupied together […]
Coming soon – the 2019 Practitioners Forum is on the 7th November
Co-operatives UK popular Practitioners Forum is an annual sell-out, for very good reason. It offers superb, practical, professional development for people operating in key roles in co-operative businesses large and small. Coming up in November, Practitioners Forum is made up of a series of specialist forums covering Communications, Finance, Governance, HR and Membership. Delegates are able to […]
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 […]