About Boosting Community Business London

Growing London's social economy

The Mayor of London has partnered with Co-operatives UK and Power to Change to support community businesses in Greater London. We want to grow the social economy and support community businesses looking to take community ownership of local public assets.

There are two types of support available:

Track 1: Start-up support

New and existing community businesses were able to apply for up to eight days of bespoke business support, mentoring and training worth up to £4,000. 

Support will help to set up community businesses, develop business ideas and become sustainable and growing businesses. And convert existing organisations to a community business so that finance can be raised through community shares.

Applications for Track 1 start up support closed on 12 March 2021.

Track 2: Development grants

Grants of up to £10,000 are available to support the development of your community share offer. The grant funds specialist advice to help you:

• Create high quality share offer documents
• Undertake a Standard Mark assessment, the quality assurance mark for community shares
• Develop a promotional campaign (to reach potential community shares investors)
• Select the right web platform and cover costs of hosting the share offer online

Organisations can apply for both, as long as they meet the eligibility criteria outlined in the application guidance.

Track 2 development grant applications are still open for a short time – as of July 2021. They will be awarded on a rolling first come first served basis.

Who can apply?

We are supporting new and existing community businesses that will have completed a community share offer by the end of December 2021.

Community businesses are run by local people for local people. There are many types of community business. What they all have in common is that they are inclusive and give decision making power to local people and that the profits they generate flow back into the community to deliver positive local impact.

We are supporting groups looking to 

• revive and take ownership of local assets. This could be to create community hubs or projects helping to revive high streets
• protect the services in their local area that people rely on, and address local needs. 

Application deadlines 

Track 2 applications are still open for a short time and will be awarded on a first come, first served basis.