One member, one vote, however much you put in.
Community shares are withdrawable share capital in a registered society, and the rule that defines them is that voting is per member rather than per share. Somebody who puts in twenty thousand pounds has exactly the same vote as somebody who puts in fifty.
Capital would be at risk, and nothing here is an offer
Nothing on this page is an offer, an invitation to invest, or a financial promotion. Community shares, bonds and insurance are regulated products: capital would be at risk, they are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, and none of them is available anywhere in this build. Any real version would require an authorised firm, approved promotions under section 21 of FSMA 2000, and documentation nobody generates from a website.
How a community share offer is actually built.
The vehicle
- Legislation
- The Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014
- Registered with
- The Financial Conduct Authority, as registrar rather than as regulator
- Form
- A co-operative society, or a community benefit society
- Asset lock
- Standard in a community benefit society, and the thing that stops it being sold off later
The shares
- Type
- Withdrawable share capital — unusual, and specific to societies
- Voting
- One member, one vote, regardless of holding
- Transferable
- Generally not. You withdraw rather than sell
- Interest
- Permitted, usually capped by the rules, and payable only if affordable
- Withdrawal
- At the society’s discretion, subject to its rules and its cash
The protections, and their absence
- FSCS cover
- None
- Ombudsman
- None, in the ordinary sense
- Capital at risk
- Entirely. The society can fail and the shares can be worth nothing
- The Community Shares Standard Mark
- A voluntary quality mark, and a genuinely useful signal
Withdrawable share capital is exempt from some of the financial promotion restrictions that apply to ordinary shares, which is what makes community share offers possible at all. It does not make them safe.
Why one member one vote changes everything.
Because it removes the reason to put in a large sum in order to control the thing. A community share offer cannot be taken over by somebody buying up the shares, which is the fate of most community assets that are structured as ordinary companies.
It also produces a very particular kind of member: somebody who put in three hundred pounds because they want the pub to exist, not because they expect a return. The interest rate, where one is paid at all, is usually low and often nil.
That combination — no control premium, no capital gain, modest or no interest — is why community shares work and why they are not an investment in any ordinary sense. People are buying the continued existence of something.
What a real offer would have to do.
Register the society
With rules that specify the asset lock, the voting, and the withdrawal terms.
Produce a share offer document
With the business plan, the risks, and the honest downside, in plain English.
Seek the Community Shares Standard Mark
Voluntary, but a genuine signal that the offer has been reviewed against a standard.
Set a minimum and a maximum
A minimum below which the money is returned, and a maximum holding so that nobody dominates.
Run the offer for a fixed period
With the money held until the minimum is reached.
Report to members afterwards
Annually, whether or not the news is good. This is the step most often skipped.
What could and could not be community-owned here.
| The asset | Plausible? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A village pub | Yes, and it is the classic case | Small, local, and the alternative is closure |
| A village shop | Yes | Same argument, and Plunkett has hundreds of them |
| A brewery | Not really | Capital-intensive, competitive, and it needs one person who can decide quickly |
| A thousand acres of arable land | No | Land at agricultural values is far beyond a community raise, and farming it needs a farmer, not a committee |
| A hedgerow programme | No, and it does not need to be | Adoption at ninety pounds does the same job without a regulated instrument |
The structure that goes wrong.
Revenue-share mini-bonds, and the £237 million case that changed the rules.
What people actually ask.
The two questions this page gets most, answered without a support ticket.
No. This is an unsolicited third-party demonstration build, not affiliated with or endorsed by any of the businesses it describes.
Public filings, published rankings and press reporting, each labelled on the page as a verified record, a founder claim or a third-party estimate.
