Plymouth’s community businesses can apply for emergency support from Power to Change during coronavirus crisis

Emergency support worth up to £12 million is being made available to help community businesses across England during the coronavirus crisis, Power to Change has announced.

The money is intended to ensure community businesses – which provide vital support services in local areas – can withstand the loss of trading income as a result of the lockdown.

Power to Change, the independent trust that supports community businesses in England, will use its new emergency support to provide assistance to its current and previous grantees, as well as to community businesses which are members of its strategic partners – Co-operatives UK, Locality and the Plunkett Foundation.

Plymouth is home to a number of Power to Change grantees. This includes Makers HQ, a fashion and textiles studio that have been making scrubs for health workers battling Covid-19 by turning surgery curtains into new protective garments. Nudge, a community business that finds new uses for derelict buildings in Plymouth, has created a wi-fi net between the buildings so it can provide free wi-fi to the community. And Alison Turner, Chairperson of Plymouth’s Furniture Reuse Project, has been making food and care packages from her home as she continues to support local people.

Yet while coronavirus has increased the demands placed on community businesses and the need for their services is greater than ever, many are experiencing a sharp drop in revenue due to the lockdown.

The Community Business Market Report 2019 shows there are approximately 9,000 community businesses in England. Of these, 58% (or more than 5,000 community businesses) have had to stop their primary operations completely because they are either venues (community hubs), retail (pubs and cafes) or arts/culture businesses (leisure centres, libraries, art centres).

The new emergency support from Power to Change includes:

£7 million in rescue funding for community businesses, offering grants up to £25,000 to contribute towards trading income losses incurred between April and June 2020. This first pot of funding is available to current and previous Power to Change grantees, and to community businesses which are members of Power to Change’s strategic partners – Co-operatives UK, Locality and the Plunkett Foundation – all of whom played a key role in designing this response.
£5 million in recovery funding, to be made available later this year, based on learning from the first pot to help community businesses rebuild and recover strongly from the crisis.

Vidhya Alakeson, CEO of Power to Change, said: “The coronavirus crisis has shown just how important community businesses are to the lives of local people right across the country. From providing essential supplies and services, to supporting the vulnerable and isolated, there have been countless stories of community businesses leading the way in the community response to Covid-19.

“Our aim now is to ensure that community businesses can continue their vital work despite the impact of lost trading due to coronavirus. We have designed this Emergency Support in close collaboration with our partners Cooperatives UK, Locality, and the Plunkett Foundation, taking on board insights and advice from across the sector. We will continually review the short, medium and long term needs of community businesses as we support them throughout this crisis and beyond.”

Despite the challenges currently faced, Power to Change is confident the community business sector can emerge to play an even more central role in their neighbourhoods following this crisis – building on the renewed sense of community spirit across the country and helping to play a key role in rebuilding our society and economy.

Power to Change has invested in over 1,000 community businesses since it launched in 2015 with an endowment from the National Lottery Community Fund.

This emergency support will be open for applications from week commencing 11th May to support those organisations and around a thousand more community businesses who are members of Co-operatives UK, Locality and Plunkett Foundation. Those organisations can find out more on the Power to Change website and attend a free webinar about the scheme on 6th May.

Further information and support for community businesses is available at www.powertochange.org.uk

Images of Power to Change CEO Vidhya Alakeson and of some of the community businesses mentioned above can be accessed here: https://we.tl/t-nLnngKeqJH