£600,000 available for threatened high street buildings
Melanie May | 28 February 2020 | News
Communities working together to save popular buildings and spaces can now apply for a share of a new £600,000 pot from the Architectural Heritage Fund.
The Architectural Heritage Fund is a funding partner on the Community Shares Booster Programme, alongside Power to Change. The programme, delivered by Co-operatives UK in partnership with Locality, is a funding scheme to support community share offers. The wider fund is open to a range of projects with AHF’s contribution ring fenced for heritage projects that play an important role in high street revival and the economic resilience of an area.
The new £600,000 injection of funding will pay for grants of up to £10,000 to community businesses, helping them launch community share offers. Equity investments of up to £50,000 to match amounts raised in community shares are also available.
Marsden Grocery Community Benefit Society (pictured) is located in a conservation area near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, and is one of the first community businesses to receive investment from the Architectural Heritage Fund, via the Programme. It has received matched investment of £6,650 towards its community share offer, which saw 396 local people come together raise over £53,000 to set up a co-operative grocery store after their local greengrocers closed.
Fiona Russell, Chair of Marsden Grocery Community Benefit Society, said:
“Marsden can feel a long way away from anywhere, particularly for older people and those struggling to make ends meet. Losing our greengrocers felt like a real moment of threat in our community. We were seriously worried that other retail businesses would follow and that our self-sufficiency, which is a village hallmark, would be lost.”
“Support from the Community Shares Booster programme has been so important to the development of the shop. It gave us much-needed hope when we felt daunted by how much we had to raise. And the process of assessment itself was really helpful. It made us really think through the choices we were making and our business plan is far stronger for having to go through such a rigorous procedure. All in all, it’s strengthened our planning, built our confidence.”
Matthew Mckeague, CEO at the Architectural Heritage Fund, said:
Advertisement
“The Architectural Heritage Fund has been investing in community share offers for a number of years, including co-operative pubs such as the Ivy House in Peckham and workspaces such as Portland Works in Sheffield. We are excited by this new partnership with Co-operatives UK and look forward to working with them in supporting community businesses that will breathe new life into high streets and town centres through the regeneration of historic buildings.”
More information for communities wanting to find out more or who are considering community share offers is available on the Community Shares Booster site.
Photo credit: Katie Byram
Related posts
A.F. Blakemore launches 1917 heritage grants scheme
Giving to Heritage training programme helps groups raise £3.15m
AHF invites applications for next round of Transformational Project Grants
£36m in funding available from second round of Culture Recovery Fund
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.