State of the Sector Update 2024 – Premises case studies

On 4th October 2024 we gathered our members and partners at the Bankside Hotel in London to look back at how we have addressed the key issues raised by the State of the Sector report so far, and to discuss what we should be focussing on next.

As part of this event, we split up into breakout rooms to discuss the three key topics of Funding, Corporate Relationships and Premises. In the Premises breakout room we looked at a number of different approaches to providing space for the VCS, through the following case studies. They are provided here for your reference. They, along with others we have been researching, will help influence our policy requests and plans going forward.

You can also view them in one document: State of the Sector Premises case studies

If these spark any ideas or questions please do let us know – contact alex@communitysouthwark.org.

The following instructions were given to attendees in the breakout rooms:

There are three key areas

we would like you to think about in your discussions:

• Allocation – who decides who uses and/or manages the spac
• e(s)?
• Management – who takes responsibility for the space(s), pays the bills and runs it day to day?
• Paying for it – how can it be made affordable and sustainable?

You might also like to discuss how this case study might inform the council’s response to the Land Commission, and its recommendations for affordable workspace, VCS Hubs and a Community Empowerment Fund. Notes on the report and the council response are provided on a separate sheet:

State of the Sector 2024 – Land Commission handout

Other questions you might like to think about:

• What do you like about this approach?
• What elements do you think would work well in Southwark?
• What challenges could you for-see with this?
• What wouldn’t work so well?
• If this approach was to be replicated in Southwark, where could this be, or who would you like to be involved?

Case study 1 – Community Premises Portfolio and Community Benefit Rent Reduction Scheme in Tower Hamlets

Core idea

• Tower Hamlets council has 70 premises that it rents exclusively to voluntary and community organisations. These premises are described as the Community Premises Portfolio.
• These premises’ primary function is “supporting local VCS groups to provide facilities and services for the community, rather than to generate a commercial income.”
• As such, they may be leased to recognised VCS tenants at the council’s standardised ‘community rent’, currently £14 per annum per square foot.
• The tenant may also be eligible to be considered for the council’s community benefit rent reduction scheme (CBRR).
• For reference, the council estimates that the VCS in Tower Hamlets comprises approximately 1,300 groups – similar in number to Southwark, with a similar population of 310,300 to Southwark’s 307,600.

Rent reduction

• This Community Benefit Rent Reduction scheme can give a rent reduction of up to 80 per cent to organisations that meet its requirements.
  • Organisations that do not meet all the requirements may still get 40 or 20 per cent rent reduction.
• To be eligible for CBRR, an organisation must:
  • Occupy premises listed in the council’s ‘Community Premises Portfolio’ with a lease of three to five years.
  • Be community led.
  • Show good governance.
  • Embrace diversity, work to improve community cohesion and reduce inequality.
  • Be capable of managing a building.
  • Be willing to share space.
  • Show how their activities contribute to the Tower Hamlets Plan outcomes.
• Groups can apply for it, but will be tested on the skills, knowledge and capacity to run the building, such as:
  • If it can manage the building sustainably over the term of the lease.
  • How it engages with the community it serves and seeks feedback.
  • How it embraces diversity and community cohesion.
  • How it will use the space efficiently and intensively.
  • How its activities and use of the building will deliver clear and evidenced social, economic, and environmental benefits.
• The CBRR award is treated as a grant, which is monitored each year.
  • If the value of the CBRR exceeds £20,000 per year, organisations must fill out a Social Value Self-Assessment Tool.
• Where the building will be hired out to other organisations, community groups or local residents the organisation must either have or be working towards achieving a quality mark relevant to managing premises that will be used by others.
• The final decisions will be made by a panel comprised of:
  • Head of Revenue Services (Council).
  • Head of Corporate Strategy & Policy (Council).
  • Head of Asset Management (Council).
  • Chief Executive, TH Council for Voluntary Service (equivalent to Community Southwark).

Other properties

• The council maintains a separate list of premises available at commercial rates. VCS organisations are still eligible to apply for those, but will not get the discounted rates.
• In exceptional circumstances the council may agree to premises being added to the community premises portfolio. The to be considered the premises must:
  • Be currently occupied by a VCS organisation.
  • Be different in nature from premises where the council would expect to generate a commercial income, and not be required by the council for offices or direct service delivery.
  • Not be used for the delivery of statutory services through a public service contract.
• New premises that come into the council’s ownership designated for community use, such as premises passed to the council through s106 agreements, that do not already have a specified use may be considered for inclusion in the community premises portfolio.

Council ‘rationale’

• These policies enable the council to:
  • Meet the current legal requirement to secure both best value and best consideration.
  • Make the basis of any subsidies clear and transparent.
  • Ensure that community premises in the council’s ownership are fit for purpose, particularly as regards health and safety and preventative maintenance.
  • Recover the costs of maintenance and repair of premises, or make clear where responsibility for these lies with the tenant.
  • Demonstrate a fair, consistent and justifiable approach to letting premises to voluntary and community sector organisations.
  • Maximise the utilisation of community premises conducive to optimum local benefit, encouraging shared use of premises where possible.
  • Formalise tenancy agreements based on standardised contractual models.
  • Reduce the amount of council management time spent on running community assets.

Case study 2 – Premises managed by VCS for groups working on same theme such as We Are 336

Core idea

• We Are 336 is a charity whose primary mission is to support disabled people and their organisations by providing an accessible disability hub building.
  • They provide accessible and affordable office space to disability, older people’s and carers’ charities, a small accessible conference centre, and a basement area for a range of activities including an arts space.
  • This includes providing ‘seed-bed’ opportunities at a peppercorn rent for start-up disability organisations working towards becoming registered charities.
• Their website lists 15 different organisations using their space.

Context

• The building was re-purposed from its original design as a warehouse and data storage centre, and redesigned in 1984 as office space and a conference centre.
• Four disability charities were the initial tenants, with only We Are 336 (then known as Lambeth Accord) still in existence.
• Lambeth Accord was originally set up as a charity to increase opportunities for disabled people. When their model became unviable, they pivoted to maximising the use of the building, to help address the serious shortage of accessible office space in south London.
  • We have not been able to determine how the charity owns this space, which is obviously a big hurdle for replicating this model.

Case study 3 – The Selby Trust and The Selby Centre in Tottenham

Core idea

• The Selby Centre, located in Tottenham, is home to over 35 local VCS organisations.
  • It houses a mixture of charities and non-profit organisations, as well as businesses such as accountants, healthcare providers, care agencies, driving test centres, soft play and more.
• It is run by the Selby Trust, an organisation set up specifically to manage community facilities.
  • They aim to bring together a rich mix of individuals and organisations, primarily from BME, refugee and other historically excluded communities in Tottenham, Haringey, North London and beyond.

Context

• The building was originally a school, which was closed in 1983.
• Following the Broadwater Farm riots of 1985, a group of local residents and activists lobbied Haringey council and their local MP to give the local community in North Tottenham a space to organise and develop action networks
• In 1985 it was re-purposed as community centre, run by the local council until 1990, when it was taken on by the local community under the name of the newly-formed Selby Trust.
  • This was set up by local people who recognised the need for a multi-purpose centre led by the community and third sector organisations, and was supported by their MP, who had a vision for a place in the community that people could afford and call their own.
• They were given a 25 year lease from the council, and began with 20 tenant organisations.
• This has increased steadily over the years, and the centre now includes a sports hall, recording studio, and garden space, alongside the office spaces.

Other services

• The Trust runs a wide range of services. Alongside managing the venue’s office, meeting rooms and events spaces, the Trust runs community development training courses, business training and networking sessions, and recycling and gardening initiatives.
  • Their business training programmes include streams for non-profits, SMEs and start up businesses.
• The organisation now records an income of between £1.14-1.5million over last few years – the majority of which comes from ‘other trading activities’ (as per the Charity Commission website).

Case study 4 – CVS or Funder managed spaces, such as at Fivefields, CVA, and Sobus

Fivefields Workspace – Victoria, London

• Two large foundations – the Westminster Foundation and Grosvenor Estate – have collaborated to operate a flexible working space for charities, currently hosting 15 charities or non-profit organisations.
  • It is located in Victoria, and is managed by a B Corp (social enterprise) workspace provider called x+why.
• Westminster Foundation offers grant funding to pay for some costs (perhaps up to as much as 50% of the rent, but more clarity needed).
• Tenants seem to be mostly large charities, including:
  • London Wildlife Trust
  • Youth Futures Foundation
  • Creative Mentor Network
  • Heritage of London Trust
  • UK Youth
  • Speakers Trust

Croydon Voluntary Action

• Croydon Voluntary Action (CVA) manages 3 community buildings, in order to:
  • Provide affordable meeting and office space to charitable and community groups in Croydon
  • Support new and emerging groups develop their services at CVA venues
  • Provide local communities with access to services currently out of geographic reach
  • Provide local communities with affordable opportunities to engage in healthy living activities that enhances their well being
  • Provide a virtual office service for groups not ready to take physical space
• The CVA Resource Centre is a shared workspace building in the heart of Croydon, offering a combination of regular office space, hot desks and event/meeting rooms for hire.
  • They also offer a Virtual Office service, providing an office address for correspondence and administrative purposes.
• The Waterside Centre provides various spaces for rent including office spaces and meeting rooms, and a large Pavilion Hall and other spaces for hire.
• The Volunteer Centre Shop, located in the shopping centre, offers organisations the opportunity to use an open-plan office for meetings and volunteer recruitment events for small groups.
• Across these three spaces they host 21 organisations, with a good number of regular weekly hires as well.
• They also help manage the CVA Active Communities Hub, a collaboration with the local shopping centre and London Sport, which makes use of a large unused unit where residents are encouraged to get active and improve their physical and mental health.

Sobus – Hammersmith and Fulham

• Sobus manage two large workspace buildings – the Dawes Road Hub and the Freston Road Hub.
  • Dawes Road is a refurbished former school building that was purchased in 2011 by an organisation that was later merged into sobus – a legacy of the New Deal for Communities programme.
  • Freston Road was purpose built and opened in 2018.
• Both offer affordable, bright, modern office space and meeting rooms for charities, social business and enterprise, with a mixture of long-term offices, hot-desking and one-off hires.
• They have a team of dedicated staff with many years of managing a range of corporate and community facilities.

Similar schemes, although varying in size and scope, are offered by Hackney CVS and Voluntary Action Islington.

Case study – Linking up community spaces and healthcare, such as at the Bromley by Bow Centre

Core idea

• The Bromley by Bow Centre is a community centre in Tower Hamlets, and was founded by a local priest, his congregation, and local volunteers. The congregation was shrinking, and rather than close, they decided to open up their buildings for the community to use.
• They formed a charity to deliver community services in child-care, welfare advice, and adult learning, as well as opening a café.
• In 1997 they opened the UK’s first Healthy Living Centre and took over management of a nearby park.
• It now offers over 40 services and activities and a community research project, and is closely affiliated with Bromley by Bow NHS Health Partnership.
  • Services include a food pantry, social prescribing, employment and skills training, enterprise and start up support, energy and benefits advice, befriending, gardening and creative arts programmes, adult social care and more.
• They are a large organisation, with 72 staff and 110 volunteers
• They describe their space as “the open doorway to our broad offer of tailored support”, for example:
  • “People who drop in to pick up a fuel voucher may be gently encouraged to attend a session on household budgeting. They may spend time one-to-one with an adviser who can help them with better financial planning. We may be able to support them in reducing existing debt. There could be benefits or family support entitlements of which clients are unaware and which we can help them to claim. Or we may enable them to take a course of education, to gain skills that could lead them to better paid work.”

Healthcare

• In the mid-1990s, to address the needs they saw as not being met by statutory provision, they built their own GP practice, which by 1997 was delivering a new model of primary care focused on the social determinants of their patients’ health.
• The goal is to empower and re-engage individuals in decisions about their own health care, and by combining a community hub with a GP practice and a research centre, people are supported with a variety of integrated services.
• The centre also incorporates nature in its health provisions for the community, with therapeutic horticulture aimed at adults with physical and learning disabilities as one of its flagship projects.
• The focus is on what is colloquially known as ‘health by stealth’, that incorporates social care teams and experts in key areas such as money management, welfare advice, and housing on site.
• They also champion social prescribing, streamlining referral to in-house expert non-clinical services that support patients with non-clinical, root causes of poor health.
• For context, the health centre was sold by the charity in 2022 to help clear debts, but they remain closely involved with it

Context

• This centre is often held up as a model for other places to learn from, and the South East London Integrated Care System are keen to replicate aspects where they can.
• For example, they are keen to bring more community groups into existing health centres, such as the Waldron Health Centre in Lewisham and the Tessa Jowell centre in Southwark.
• It might be interesting to discuss how you would like to see VCS groups embedded in these spaces.