South Tynedale Railway

Empowering Places: Impact on the community and wider place

Published:

Empowering Places aims to build more resilient and prosperous communities by building the capacity of local organisations to catalyse and support the growth of new community businesses. It funds locally rooted ‘catalyst’ organisations in six areas of high deprivation. Each catalyst receives up to £1 million (July 2017–December 2022)…

Co-operative Pubs 2014: A Better Form of Business

Published: 2014

This publication is the first ever report on the state of the co‐operative pubs sector in the UK. It is based on a survey conducted by Plunkett Foundation staff in December 2013 and draws on information provided by 21 of the 22 co‐operative pubs open and trading at the end of 2013. The majority of the information was collected through …

Community Shops 2014: A Better Form of Business

Published: 2014

This report aims to give an overview of the development of the community shop sector in the UK and of the health and wealth of the sector today. Specifically, the report provides numerical data about the range of legal and management structures of these shops; a summary of the scope of products and services they offer; an analysis of their prof…

A Better Form of Business 2013: Community-owned village shops

Published: 2013

Community-owned village shops continue to be one of the leading success stories of the UK co-operative and community enterprise movement.
In 1993 there were just 23 community-owned shops trading in the UK;
20 years on there are 303, with a further 30 anticipated to open in 2013.

This report aims to give an overview of the development of the co…

Co-operative Pubs: A better form of business – 2014

Published: 2015

This publication is based on the results of surveys undertaken by the Plunkett Foundation between March and April 2015 and draws on information provided by 29 of the 33 co-operative pubs open and trading across the UK at the end of 2014. The majority of this information was collected through a structured online survey completed by appointe…

Community Shops: A better form of business – 2014

Published: 2015

This publication is based on the results of surveys undertaken by the Plunkett Foundation between March and April 2015 and is based on new information provided by 95 of the 325 community shops open and trading across the UK at the end of 2014, as well as information gathered from nearly every community shop over the last 3 years.

The majority …

“What if we ran it ourselves?” – Getting the measure of Britain’s emerging community business sector

Published: 2015

A report from Social Finance has revealed new findings about the current state and scope of the community business sector. The report finds that there are around 4,500 community businesses in England and Wales, with a combined income of £800m a year and assets of £1 billion. These community businesses employ around 24,000 staff and engage nea…

The community business market in 2015

Published: 2016

The Power to Change Research Institute commissioned Social Finance in September 2015 to provide an updated assessment of the state of the community business market. This followed Social Finance’s original report on the community business market, What If We Ran It Ourselves?, published in January 2015, based on research conducted by Social Fin…

The community business market in 2016

Published: 2016

The Power to Change Research Institute commissioned Social Finance in July 2016 to provide an updated assessment of the state of the community business market. This follows ‘What if we ran it ourselves?’ and ‘The State of the Community Business Market’.

The report finds that the number of community businesses in England has grown by 5%…