People look to share schemes to save their communities

Community share schemes are becoming an important weapon in the long-standing fight to save our communities. Numbers of local pubs, shops and schools continue to decline as they have for many years. But the rapidly increasing use of community share schemes to save such assets is striking a new, positive note among the usual stream of negative stories about communities.

To give an indication, the number of community share scheme offerings in 2015 was 200, which is more than double the number of initial public offerings on the alternative investment market, albeit that the sums involved would usually be much smaller. At this time of decentralisation – when so many people are trying to wrest back control from large corporations and central governments – community shares look like a concept whose time is coming.

I have seen this situation play out in my own village of Pavenham, where The Cock pub has been faced with an increasingly uncertain future and even potential closure.