Last month, along with Power to Change, we published “Keys to the future: How we build a new era of community ownership”.
It calls on the government to bring forward £200m of new funding for community asset ownership at the next Budget. This can be one crucial part of a National Community Ownership Strategy, catalysing the public sector, charitable funders, and social investors to generate a £1bn investment pot over the next five years.
The report highlights and evidences the value of community-owned assets not only to local economic growth, but to the wider social and environmental factors central to any thriving neighbourhood.
But taking ownership of such important spaces is often only the first hurdle communities face in securing their long-term future and impact. Many buildings in community ownership are ageing and in poor condition – and these apparent assets can soon become liabilities. Poor energy efficiency is common. Many community organisations are trying to retrofit their buildings, and we've helped some facing these challenges through our specialist climate advice and support work, alongside guidance on low cost ways to help improve energy efficiency, Organisations have told us that improving energy efficiency can reduce costs, create more usable space and help make buildings fit for the future. However, they face significant challenges making the more significant improvements needed, which require professional advice and funding.
In early 2023 – following lobbying from Locality and the wider sector – the government announced a cost of living support package for local charities and community organisations serving the most disadvantaged areas. This included £25.5m for organisations to improve the energy efficiency of their buildings.
Alongside Groundwork, Social Investment Business, Centre for Sustainable Energy, and Energy Saving Trust, we supported the delivery of the VCSE Energy Efficiency Scheme from 2023 to 2025. A new report from the partnership – “Through the roof: The case for investing in the energy efficiency of community buildings” – explains how the scheme worked, what we learnt, and what needs to happen now.
The Scheme supported 1,147 independent energy assessments to help organisations understand how they might improve the energy efficiency of their buildings. This led to 316 organisations successfully securing grants to deliver projects with an average value of £55,000. These included solar panel installation; insulation improvements; LED lighting installation; window, glazing, and door upgrades; heat pump installation; and heating improvements.
Taken together, “Through the roof” and “Keys to the future” combine a vision for a new era of community ownership, a roadmap for how we catalyse it, and vital lessons for ensuring its long-term sustainability. Three are particularly crucial if we want to deal with the threat that energy inefficiency poses to the vision:
1. Sustainable and fit-for-purpose community buildings are a pre-requisite for realising the full value of local VCSE organisations
Old, badly designed, or poorly maintained buildings don’t just detract from the work of local VCSE organisations, they also threaten their financial sustainability. The cost of energy, exacerbated by poor thermal efficiency, can pose a threat to the mission – or even the continued existence – of many organisations in the places they are needed most.
Research undertaken by NCVO in 2023 found that 1 in 10 charities spent more than 20% of their income on energy, with nearly a quarter of those who pay their bills directly reporting cost increases of more than 50%. One in five reported that they had reduced the use of their premises as a result of rising costs.
For many organisations supported by the Scheme, increased comfort and reduced running costs meant they have been able to bring parts of their building into use that otherwise would have been closed, enabling them to deliver a broader range of services, deliver services at different times of day, or generate additional rental income.
2. Demand for energy efficiency support outstrips supply, and the gap will only grow
The demand for grants significantly exceeded the level of funding available, even though the Scheme was delivered within a very short timescale and focused on tightly defined groups – those who could demonstrate that they were predominantly delivering frontline services to support people experiencing cost of living pressures. A total of £55m was requested for capital measures, with only £20m available.
Since then, heating prices have continued to rise. In the coming years, organisations will come under increasing pressure to ensure their buildings meet minimum energy efficiency standards, and those delivering public sector contracts will need to have comprehensive carbon reduction plans in place. As a result, more and more local VCSE organisations will need help to invest in energy efficiency measures.
3. There is an even more fundamental need for basic repairs and maintenance of community buildings
Some grantees needed to allocate part of their funding to address minor building works, and the need in some cases for larger works (which could not be funded through the Scheme) prevented or delayed valuable cost-saving measures from being installed. Solar panels can’t be installed on a roof that needs repairs or strengthening and the benefits of new heating systems will not be felt if brickwork and other building fabric are not in adequate condition.
Ongoing support to improve energy efficiency must ensure that funds are available first and foremost to bring community buildings up to a decent standard.
Based on these findings, “Through the roof” makes recommendations for the future of VCSE energy efficiency support. These include ones that closely align with and complement two key, cross-sector calls to action we lay out in “Keys to the future” to bring about a new era of community ownership:
A long-term, well-funded “Community Ownership Support Engine”
Alongside the development of a large-scale fund focused on asset purchase and renovation, project funding must also include investment in community ownership support infrastructure. This “Community Ownership Support Engine” should enable collaboration between VCSE sector infrastructure bodies, providing multi-disciplinary expertise, UK-wide geographic coverage, and credibility with funders and government.
Further funding and support for building fabric and energy efficiency investments will be crucial, perhaps structured in a similar way to the VCSE Energy Efficiency Scheme. This will require more consistent, high-quality independent energy assessments and earlier-stage support for project delivery from technical experts.
Strategic support from local and regional government
Local and combined authorities have a major role to play in ensuring the security of community-owned assets, the vital services that are accessed daily from them, and the opportunities to join them up with other areas of local strategy like renewable energy and health and social care transformation.
Dedicated community ownership strategies should be developed across regions and funding from local growth funds used to support community asset ownership and development. This includes factoring support for community organisations to upgrade their buildings and bring them up to energy efficiency standards into local area energy plans and wider net zero strategies.
This government has so far viewed the role of community ownership in neighbourhood renewal primarily through its Pride in Place Strategy – particularly the Pride in Place Programme, Impact Fund, and new Community Right to Buy Fund. This can be one important element of the journey towards a new era of community ownership as part of a much wider National Community Ownership Strategy. But crumbling, leaky, and expensive-to-run buildings pose a serious threat to any effort to reap the broad benefits of community asset ownership. It's vital to make sure these spaces are solid, sustainable, and fit-for-purpose for the long-term.