All across the UK, people facing challenges in their neighbourhoods are getting together to provide the solutions that big organizations – public or private – are unable to carry out. We know because they get in touch and tell us about it.

In Holsworthy, young families were being forced away by skyrocketing rents and house prices. If the town and the surrounding villages were to survive with the schools, shops and local firms intact, there needed to be new homes built in which people could afford to live. Volunteers from the community got together and formed a Community Property Trust (CPT), identified a site and a method of providing homes affordably, and then faced the problem common to all: finance in a period of public cutbacks.

For many years now we have seen the same shift in culture at the local level that replaces the stereotypical NIMBYism of the past, with positive buy bupropion online us vision. The difficulty is that whilst mainstream finance is awash with cash once again, it routinely does not understand these small, often start-up organizations with their voluntary boards and lack of existing assets. Their visions are stalled.

Resonance, through its community lending arm, Community Land & Finance (CLF), connects these local initiatives with investors who value this community-led approach. It works with them to get their solutions off the ground, using two linked impact investment funds: flexible finance for affordable homes and cash to support community share issues. These funds encourage communities to get their vision built, and eventually, to re-engage with mainstream finance with the advantage of proven track record and assets.

The 2013/14 CLF CIC (Community Land & Finance Community Interest Company) Social Impact Report, linked above, will provide some more detail on exactly how these two impact investment funds are helping local communities get things off the ground.

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