News & Views
Featured Stories
Radical bookshop buys former bank
A 40-year old radical bookshop co-operative named after the Russian Revolution is now the legal owner of a former bank building which it plans to turn into a community hub. On 6 August October Books in Southampton completed the purchase of 189 Portswood Road which for many years had been a branch of NatWest Bank. […]
Innovative ventures in food and farming
In 2017 we continued to work with the Real Farming Trust and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to deliver the Just Growth programme. This 18-month initiative was set up to nurture community enterprises that are farming and producing food in a responsible way. Six projects received a funding package made up of one third loan finance, one […]
Helping multi-stakeholder co-ops to grow
During 2017 we helped two very different multi-stakeholder co‑operatives to expand and develop. RetrofitWorks RetrofitWorks, based in London, is a multi-stakeholder co-operative whose members include both owners/managers of housing stock such as local authorities, housing associations and charities, and tradespeople and building companies. Megan Williams, Projects Manager at RetrofitWorks, said: “RetrofitWorks brings together the supply […]
Recent Lending
Lending steady and customers happy
Lending has been steady in the first half of this year with strong lending to community pubs and creative/ media and publishing businesses. Our 2018 Half Year Review reports that we released 10 loans totalling £367,000 from the funds we manage in the first six months of this year, directly benefiting an estimated 1,500 people […]
Old Ship to rise from the ashes
The people of a picturesque but deprived village in Cornwall are preparing to rebuild and reopen a derelict pub that burnt down five years ago. The site of The Old Ship in Cawsand has been bought by a community benefit society with a little help from Co-operative & Community Finance, Plunkett Foundation, and the More […]
Radical bookshop buys former bank
A 40-year old radical bookshop co-operative named after the Russian Revolution is now the legal owner of a former bank building which it plans to turn into a community hub. On 6 August October Books in Southampton completed the purchase of 189 Portswood Road which for many years had been a branch of NatWest Bank. […]
Knocking again
The residents of Caverswall, near Stoke on Trent, flocked to the Auctioneers Arms on 19 May 2018 to celebrate the reopening of their local pub, affectionately named The Knocks. The glorious day started with a speech from the town crier of Leek, Bill Lomas, before the bar was officially opened. This marked the end of […]
Circus can still surprise after 250 years
The world’s first circus performance is thought to have taken place in London in 1768. Today, in this 250th anniversary year, one of the champions of the transformative power of circus is an extraordinary social enterprise based in a former mining village in south Wales. Operating from the old church hall in Gwaun Cae Gurwen, […]
500 year old pub saved
The people of Ash, near Sandwich in Kent, have succeed in buying the 500-year old Chequer Inn that has been closed for four years. The pub had previously been bought by a developer but the villagers blocked the planning application and persuaded the local authority to make the pub and Asset of Community Value. They […]
Blogs
We are first choice for loans to co-op pubs
As we reported in A Review of 2017, the More Than A Pub programme, funded by the government and Power to Change, has helped many communities take ownership and control of their local pubs. At the end of September there were 69 co‑operative pubs open for business in England and Wales and a further 236 […]
Building a new economy
Radical publishers Stir To Action have recently launched their New Economy programme, a year of workshops, residentials, mentoring, and live crowdfunding events. The programme will be delivered in Bristol, Oxford, and London from October 2018 to July 2019. Co-operative & Community Finance is one of the sponsors and its members and borrowers are being offered […]
New chair appointed
Jon Nott has been appointed to be chair of the ICOF Group and ICOF Community Capital. Jon takes over from Jo White who stepped down at the AGMs held on 26 June after seven years as chair. Jon was elected to the board in 2017 which makes him a relative newcomer but he has a […]
Farewell Jo, Welcome Dan
Long standing director and trustee Jo White stood down at the Annual General Meetings held on 26 June 2018. Jo had been on the board of the various companies and societies involved in the ICOF family of businesses for 15 years and she had been chair since 2011. She had combined this exacting voluntary position […]
Satisfied customers
‘Thank you for being there, we couldn’t have done this without you” is how one co-op described their experience of borrowing from us. An impressive 85% of our borrowers say Co-operative & Community Finance would be their first choice for another loan, if they needed one. This was one of the most striking results of […]
BBC seeks positive lending stories
The BBC has asked if any of our borrowers would be like to be featured in a series about the ethical finance. It would be good publicity for the co-op featured, for us, and for the co-op movement generally. If you are interested you need to respond quickly. Filming has already started and will continue […]