Housing to meet local is one of the biggest challenges across the country. The issues can be particularly stark in rural areas; where a lack of affordable homes can affect the future of an area itself. And communities themselves can play an important role in the solution.

In this episode I’m joined by Mandy Goddard, the Rural Housing Enabler for Devon Communities Together.  Mandy works across Devon with a wide range of communities who are coming together to tackle housing needs in their areas. We talk about how to identify local housing needs and land, working with the planners, funding the project and what help  is available to get started.

Here are links to some of the organisations that can help:

With thanks to Will Davis for podcast music Instagram: @sonorosmusic  linktr.ee/sonorosmusic

In episode 2 talk we talked about Community Benefit Societies.  Uniquely these organisations enable communities to raise investment for their projects through 'Community Shares'.  I'm joined by Dave Boyle again who tells us about community shares, how to develop a community share offer and about the Standard Mark - the benchmark for all good community share offers.

Dave has more than 20 years' experience of working with community and social businesses, helping raise over £17m from over 65 community shares issues in the last 8 years.  Dave has worked with all types of community business, from local pubs and shops to sports clubs, piers to pools, magazines and TV stations, train companies to comedy venues, from start-ups to conversions.

Dave is Licensed by the Community Shares Unit to award the Community Shares Standard Mark. Find out more on The Community Shares Company website, where you can also book a free 30 minute online or phone consultation with Dave to talk about your project.

To find out more about Community Shares and the Community Shares Standard Mark visit Community Shares | Co-operatives UK This includes details of where you can find help and also funders interesting funding support and investment in community shares Support for community shares | Co-operatives UK

If you’d like to dig deeper into the details take a look at the Community Shares  Handbook.  This guidance is for “societies and practitioners who provide advice on community shares, a term used to describe withdrawable, non-transferable share capital of co-operative and community benefit societies”. The Community Shares Handbook | Co-operatives UK

You can find a full list of licensed Community Shares practioners here: Practitioners Directory

In early 2020, Dan Raven‑Ellison had an idea: what if walking between towns and cities wasn’t just possible, but easy, safe, and enjoyable? Instead of racing from A to B, imagine a network of “Slow Ways” - routes that take you through quiet lanes, green paths, and hidden corners of England, connecting places by foot.

The concept came to life at a hack‑day in London’s GeoVation hub. Around 70 eager volunteers mapped out the first ideas, sketching connections across towns and villages. Then COVID‑19 hit. Face-to-face gatherings stalled, but the project didn’t stop. The team turned online and, in a wave of enthusiasm, 700 volunteers signed up to help map a first draft of the network from their homes, gardens, and local streets.

Slow Ways quickly became more than a project — it evolved into a Community Interest Company, supported by charities, public bodies, and mapping partners like Ordnance Survey. By the end of its first year, volunteers had drafted over 7,000 routes covering more than 100,000 km. The mission was clear: make walking between places easy, share routes freely, and inspire people to slow down, explore, and rediscover the spaces around them.

We talk about leadership, learning from failure, and creating the space for hundreds of volunteers to contribute to this collective and innovative project.

Find out more here: Slow Ways - help create a network of walking routes connecting Great Britain - Home page and a great blog here about the hackathon buildstories.slowways.org/the-hack-day-where-it-all-began/

The team are now working on Good Ways - “a new app and project to make it easier for everyone to find and enjoy good routes for walking, running, cycling, wheeling, horse-riding, skating, swimming, paddling, pushchairs and wheelchairs – whatever your needs, abilities or interests”

Dan is looking for people from across Exeter to help find and share the best routes the city has to offer this autumn. To find out more, visit www.goodways.org 

Note: We recorded this outside by the River Exe - a bit a test, so please excuse the random noises and glitchy bits towards the start!

Every new community organisation needs a website. Easy, eh?

This week I talk to Clare Bryden, who owns and runs Websites Ahoy!  It’s an ethical website development business aimed at helping small community groups and organisations – quite frankly she takes the hassle out of getting online.

Clare talks us through the importance of having a website – not only to present your work but also to control your messaging. We explore how to create clear content, and look at the practicalities of accessibility and privacy policies. We also talk about the environmental impact of hosting and how ethics shape Websites Ahoy!

If you’re looking to set up a website take a look at Clare’s free guide to writing a brief for a website.

Find out more about Website Ahoy! And the help Clare can offer here: Websites Ahoy! - Hassle-free website design & development

This week I speak to Dave Boyle from the Community Shares Company and we discuss the legal structure, the ‘Community Benefit Society’.

A Community Benefit Society is form of co-operative business designed to enable community ownership, and is successfully used across the country to take on community ownership of assets and raise investment through community shares.

We talk about the features of this legal model, the practicalities of setting one up and where to go for help. For anyone thinking about launching a community business Dave’s insights are a great starting point to think about!

Find out about the Community Shares Company and book a free consultation to discuss your project with Dave here: The Community Shares Company  Dave has more than 20 years' experience of working with community and social businesses, helping raise over £17m from over 65 community shares issues in the last 8 years. 

Links to other organisations mentioned in the show:

Have a look and book your dip at Jubilee Pool in Penzance here https://jubileepool.co.uk/

The Plunkett Foundation supports community businesses, especially pubs, in rural areas: Plunkett UK

The Community Land Trust Network support communities taking on land for affordable housing and other assets: Community Land Trust Network | Homepage

Cooperatives UK have a rules registration service: https://www.uk.coop/start-new-co-op/start/choosing-your-governing-document

Let me know what you think of this episode [email protected]

In 2010, Devon County Council agreed to hand over the freehold of the crumbling Exeter Community Centre — worth half a million and facing a similar repair bill — to a new community trust. For free. The Council added a £200,000 to kick-start for urgent works, but from April 1st the building’s future, risks and rewards all shifted to the charity. Backed by £1.2m in external funding, the new Exeter Community Centre Trust pledged to turn the Victorian school into a thriving hub of offices, meeting rooms and health services — a bold gamble in grassroots ownership.

How did the community get the Council to make this decision. Hannah Reynolds, a local resident at the time and one of the Trust’s founding members, tells us about the hoops the community went through to secure this decaying former Victorian school to turn it into a sustainable centre for community life in Exeter.

Look at it today! For introductory advice see Locality’s guide to Community Asset Transfer' - to Have and to Hold' https://mycommunity.org.uk/to-have-and-to-hold

I love my work with community and social enterprises! 

So I’ve started a podcast looking behind the scenes at how to get good things done with your community…

This episode is about why, who I’m going to be talking to and how it might help you!