The History

Hampstead Norreys had been without a village shop since the 1990’s. Even the part-time post office had subsequently closed. The 2006 Parish Plan Questionnaire, to which 80% of households responded, identified a village shop as the most requested facility to improve life in our village.

On the back of this unsolicited response a small working group was set up under the umbrella of the Parish Plan to investigate the likely viability of having a shop in the village. This included a “Shop Questionnaire” and an “Open Meeting” with results showing that whilst it was not viable to operate a Village Shop on a commercial basis, indications were that operating a “Community Shop” set up with grant money and manned by “Volunteers” might be an option worth further investigation.

Over the following 12 months the Community Shop Working Group, supported by the Parish Plan Committee, evaluated in detail the “Community Shop” possibility, including finding suitable premises and produced a draft “Business Plan” which it presented to the Village Community at another “Open Meeting” in the spring of 2009. This Business Plan showed that provided the Community Shop managed to keep its costs “low” it could break even and potentially make a small profit that could then be invested back into the community. The village community endorsed the project and mandated the Community Shop Working Group to go ahead and set the Shop up as an “Industrial and Provident Society (IPS), to raise the necessary funds and grants, to secure premises and negotiate an acceptable rent level of these and set up the shop.

Over the following 6 months the Working Group created and registered the Community Shop as an IPS and raised around £8,000 through the sale of £10 shares to members of the parish and generous donations from individuals in the village.

At this point the Working Group became the Community Shop’s Management Committee and over the following 12 months embarked on the challenging task of raising the necessary grant money (around £70,000), securing the necessary interest-free unsecured loans (around £35,000) from generous members and organisations within the community, negotiating the details of the preferential rental agreement with the shop’s landlord, identifying and securing the necessary shop fittings, fitting out the Shop, identifying and selecting suitable suppliers of goods and services, selecting the merchandise to have in the shop, setting up a core of volunteers to man the shop, advertising and recruiting for shop management.

Hampstead Norreys Community Shop was officially opened on 26^th March 2011.

The Structure

Having established, early on in the process, that to run a shop on a full commercial basis would not be an economically viable proposition, the only one option that was left was that of a Community Shop run along the lines of the Plunkett Foundation model that is adopted by many other Community Shops around the country.

The operating model followed for the shop is as an “Industrial and Provident Society (IPS) for the Benefit of the Community” as permitted by the FSA.

This is a “Limited Liability Company” where its shareholders are members of the community and where every member has one vote regardless of how many shares they buy, and where any profits generated are used for the benefit of the “Community” as decided by its members at the society’s AGM.

IPS organisations are registered and regulated by the FSA and are intended to have a very much simplified account reporting structure designed to remove the red tape associated with normal limited companies in order to help local communities to set up and run quasi commercial organization for the benefit of the whole community.