Community Ownership Fund

> Read our position paper

Our key positions

• Community Shares are a proven way to deliver outcomes in line with government’s priorities for the Community Ownership Fund: financial sustainability, resilience, levelling-up and local participation.
• Communities engaging with the Community Ownership Fund should be encouraged explore Community Shares as a matter of course. And the Community Ownership Fund should operate in a way that supports use the model where appropriate.
• While Community Shares is not appropriate for every asset and may not be a feasible option in every community, we have great confidence that Community Shares could be an appropriate part of the funding mix for a significant proportion of Community Ownership Fund applicants.
• The Community Ownership Fund should offer both match grants and match equity investments using Community Shares as the instrument.  
• To facilitate match equity investments, and to create a lasting legacy with significant public value, a portion of the Community Ownership Fund could be used to help capitalise a dedicated institutional investor in the Community Shares market, as a successor to our existing Community Shares Booster programme.
• The feasibility study and capacity building strands of the Community Ownership Fund need to include information, advice and support relating to Community Shares.
• The objectives of the Community Ownership Fund would be well-served by supporting the further development of Community Shares Standards.