Co-ops secure over £1m from government’s communities fund

Co-operatives have secured over £1m in the government’s latest round of community grants. Seventeen community buildings, five of them run by co-ops, will benefit from between £100,000 and...

Co-operatives have secured over £1m in the government’s latest round of community grants. Seventeen community buildings, five of them run by co-ops, will benefit from between £100,000 and £500,000 each from the Community Assets and Services Fund.

The £5.5m pot brings total funding under this Department for Communities and Local Government programme to £12m since 2012. A further £3.5m will be available later this year.

Unity House Wakefield secured £420,000 towards its £4.4m takeover and refurbishment of a former co-operative building. FC United will receive £303,435 to support development of a community-owned football stadium, sports and community facility in north Manchester. This will be added to the £1.74m it has raised in community shares.

Homebaked Community Land Trust secured £100,000 to help it refurbish a bakery and create a space for the community. The Homebaked land trust and co-op has brought a disused bakery near Liverpool Football Club into community ownership to create a social enterprise, community space and housing.

Co-operative pubs the King’s Arms in Shouldham, West Norfolk, and the Bevendean, also known as the Bevy, in Brighton, get £189,000 and £130,000 respectively.

Shouldham Community Enterprises Ltd raised £150,000 in community shares from almost 200 members to save the last pub in the village. “Such support was crucial to us winning this wonderful grant,” said Philip Harriss of Shouldham Community Enterprises. “We can now buy and refurbish the King’s Arms, and plan to reopen it in April.”

The Bevy, the UK’s first co-operative pub on a housing estate, raised £24,250 in community shares. By making the minimum share value £10, it attracted 546 shareholders, the largest membership of any co-op pub in the UK. Its grant will go towards refurbishing the building.

Peter Couchman, chief executive of the Plunkett Foundation, which has supported both pubs, welcomed the cash injection from the government. “Co-operative pubs make a vital contribution to building a more sustainable community by helping to regenerate the local economy, increase democratic control and reduce loneliness,” he said.

The Community Assets and Services Fund is part of the government’s community rights programme, which includes neighbourhood planning powers, community asset listings and community budgets. So far, communities have designated almost 700 areas for neighbourhood planning and registered over 750 assets of community value, including 250 pubs and 140 parks and playing fields.

Some 385 local organisations have benefited from the assets and services fund, which is managed for the government by the Social Investment Business Group and Locality.

Beneficiaries help grow their local economy by rejuvenating failing pubs, libraries, fire stations, leisure facilities and cinemas, or running health, addiction, housing, youth and waste management services. New enterprises that increase resilience, including community food-growing or energy schemes, are also eligible.

To be in with a chance, applicants must actively engage residents, councils, businesses and other community organisations in changing how services are run, and they must champion the interests of their communities.

The fund is open until March 2015, offering early stage pre-feasibility and feasibility grants to help scope projects and prepare business plans. Larger capital grants are awarded to organisations with innovative ideas for community buildings or land. The next capital grant application window opens this summer.

• For details including criteria and how to apply, visit: sibgroup.org.uk/communityrights

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