1. Looking down the back of the sofa
Looking down the back of the sofa... Ideas and options for financing cohousing feasibility and developments

2. Why am I here? National reputation for #socent #coops #startup
Train specialist enterprise advisors on financial planning
Part of national programmes to support sector growth, acting as lead on finance

3. So you’ve got a great idea...?
Grants and gifts
‘Crowdfunding’
Commissions from HA, LA, etc
?SITR (up to 50% tax relief for supporters at this stage as investment would be unsecured – no property yet)

4. A word of caution about grants...
Lead time
Restrictions on use
Cash-flow implications
Admin time/cost in monitoring & reporting
Risk of 'claw back'
Risk to credibility

5. Crowd funding

6. Crowd funding

8. How to find the pots of money?
What have other people had success with?
Who do you know? (and who do they know?)
What are local priorities of wider bodies? (Council, LEP, etc – note to self: tell them the story about the Cambridge incubator)

9. So you need to build it...? Debt.
But comes in lots of flavours: loan, equity, loan stock, community shares, quasi-equity, mortgage, bonds, ... Many of which could (in theory) offer tax relief for the investor
Possibly some grant support (but would need to evidence specific criteria)

11. What’s been used in #cohousing before? (an incomplete list)
Founder member using own savings/personal mortgage – Springhill Cohousing Community
Founder members collectively invest personally - (Lancaster cohousing)
Wider community ownership via #comshare – (various CLTs and housing #coops)
Part support from Housing Association – (Threshold Centre in Dorset)

12. Where do we go from here..?
Define what we’re happy to manage on what terms
Swap stories with each other
Don’t be afraid to experiment (student housing coops, Personal Budgets to support shared housing for people with long-term ill health,...)