Across the UK, community organisations are transforming neighbourhoods by bringing vital buildings, land and other assets into community ownership. Yet too often their ambitions are constrained by a finance system that was never designed for community-led development of assets.
Power to Change and the Mycelial Network are working together to change this. Through our early conversations with lenders and investors, we’ve found a willingness to back community asset developers. Finance providers are increasingly recognising the social, economic and civic value created by these organisations and are open to adapting existing offers, as well as co-designing new products that better meet their needs.
However, one significant obstacle to change is the lack of robust data on what community asset developers actually need from lenders and investors, the assets they own and develop, the barriers they face, and the types of finance required at different stages of development. Without that evidence, it is difficult to understand where the current system falls short, where gaps exist in the market, and how lenders, investors and community asset developers can work together to create better solutions. That’s why today we’re launching a survey to understand the finance needs of these organisations.
Help us
If your organisation is developing, acquiring or managing community assets, we need to hear from you. Every response strengthens the case for better finance products, fairer lending criteria and increased investment in community asset development.
What is a community asset developer?
Alongside our partners at the Mycelial Network, we use the term community asset developer (CAD) to encompass a wide range of organisations that share certain characteristics and a common objective. They are locally-led organisations that take on buildings and spaces to benefit our neighbourhoods. Community asset developers work with and for their communities to secure places – like community centres, cultural venues, and workspaces – so they remain in community ownership for the long term.
Community asset developers are catalytic in nature. They don’t just own buildings – they create thriving local ecosystems by supporting social enterprises, grassroots initiatives, and ultimately, long-term neighbourhood-wide transformation.
We recognise that there are other networks, movements and definitions that will overlap with this. For example, several Community Land Trusts and Heritage Development Trusts could also be considered community asset developers.
Our definition is deliberately inclusive, recognising the wide range of organisations that contribute to community asset development. We may refine it over time as the movement evolves and our understanding deepens. Different contexts may require greater precision, but our aim is to bring organisations together, not create artificial boundaries.
How your answers will make a difference
The Community Asset Development Finance Initiative (CADFI) is a collaboration between Power to Change and the Mycelial Network. This survey is an important first step, but it is only one part of a wider programme of work designed to improve access to finance for community asset developers.
The organisations often tell us that obtaining the right finance is one of the biggest barriers to delivering their ambitions. Yet lenders and investors frequently tell us they lack the evidence needed to understand the scale and nature of the challenge.
This survey is designed to bridge that gap.
Your responses will help us build the strongest picture yet of how community asset developers access finance, where barriers exist, and what changes could unlock more community-led development.
We’ll use this evidence to bring together community asset developers, lenders, investors and sector partners around a shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities. Together, we’ll explore how existing products could be adapted, where new financial solutions are needed, and what changes would enable more communities to acquire, develop and steward local assets.
Importantly, we don’t see this as a one-off research exercise. We want to continue working alongside community asset developers as the initiative develops. Survey respondents will have opportunities to stay involved, contribute further insight, test emerging ideas and help shape the recommendations and solutions that emerge from the programme.
CADFI shows what’s possible
In this early stage of CADFI, we are working closely with five community asset developers. Their stories inspire us with what’s possible.
In London, Meanwhile Space CIC has transformed 43 vacant or underused sites – creating offices and co-working spaces, studios and workshops, retail units and food premises – predominantly in some of the capital’s most deprived areas. In Bristol, We Can Make is doing something the mainstream housing market has consistently failed to do: build genuinely affordable homes that are rooted in the community, built with local people, and owned in perpetuity for local benefit.
In Bootle, Merseyside, SAFE Regeneration has opened the region’s first community-owned pub, fostered and housed multiple local enterprises in its community business hub, and is leading plans for 150 new social homes through the £38m #DestinationBootle programme. Nudge Community Builders in Plymouth have transformed a run-down high street by revitalising over 4,800 square metres of derelict space, hosted more than 1,400 community events attended by over 54,000 people, and generated more than half a million pounds in traded income. And on the south coast, Hastings Commons has created an ecosystem of connected organisations to bring affordable housing, commercial spaces and public amenities into community ownership.
These stories show us what is possible. Taken together, they point to a different vision for the future of our towns and cities: one where land and buildings are owned in the long-term interests of communities; where regeneration creates local wealth and makes it stick, rather than extracting it; and where local people have a greater say in shaping the places they call home. The question is not whether community-led development works.
The question is how many more communities could achieve similar outcomes if they had access to the right finance. That’s the challenge CADFI is seeking to address, and why your voice in this survey matters.
