Finding housing solutions to local problems through community grants

Back in 2007, members of Nationwide Building Society voted to plough at least 1% of the business’s pre-tax profits into community projects, encouraging local solutions to the national housing crisis.

It was a fitting commitment. Nationwide was set up in the late 19th century to bring ordinary people together to help them buy homes of their own. As a mutual building society, its members are its customers, and its focus on social goals as well as commercial ones has helped it stay true to its founding purpose.

In 2018, Nationwide launched a community grants programme, inviting local charitable organisations with housing solutions to apply for sums of up to £50,000. Applications are shortlisted and then regional community boards, made up of Nationwide staff and building society members, meet to assess each case and award grants.

One such member is Claire Grainger, a 60-year-old from Cromer, Norfolk, who has spent most of her working life in the housing and homelessness sectors. She saw an advert on Nationwide’s website asking for members to apply to join its community boards and she decided to put herself forward. Her work as an independent consultant in the voluntary sector made her a good fit and she was offered a place.

“I thought it was a good opportunity to look at how funding works and be part of the process,” she says. “It’s an important issue for me. There isn’t enough affordable housing and that’s exacerbated by other factors like cuts to services from both the voluntary sector and local authorities, which means the safety net is not as robust as it was. Being homeless is a difficult experience and when people do get rehoused they need additional support, too.”

In January last year, Grainger met with other community board members in Cambridge to discuss 2019 applications from the east of England. Everyone was provided with background information before the meeting, along with some context about local issues they wouldn’t necessarily be familiar with. They then set about allocating money from a pot until nothing remained.

“I felt a real responsibility when I evaluated each submission, I think everyone did,” she says. “It wasn’t easy because all the applications were worthy. It gave me a real insight into the challenges organisations are faced with.”

Last year’s community board meeting to allocate the latest set of grants was a somewhat different experience, with the board members meeting over a video call.

So far, £14m has been awarded to more than 300 local housing projects. The scheme consists of 11 community boards covering the entire UK.

One successful applicant in the south-west was the Peninsula Trust, a community organisation set up to address the scarcity of affordable housing in the area around the Rame peninsula in Cornwall. A popular holiday destination, it is full of second homes and holiday lets which means that house prices and rents have been driven beyond the reach of most locals.

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The Peninsula Trust applied for a Nationwide grant to help it fund a community housing coordinator who could advise people, lobby and campaign for affordable housing. “It’s an enormously complicated area so we identified a need for someone to focus on the sector,” says Simon Ryan, the trust’s manager. “You need people who know how the system works: policy, local housing, surveys that identify those in need, registering people and supporting their ambitions. There are too few opportunities here and a lot of desperate people, so we need to make things happen.”

The trust was awarded £42,000, enough to fund a coordinator for two years. Beyond that, the application helped the trust establish a relationship with the Nationwide branch in Plymouth. The trust has hosted a mini conference of regional managers, and plans are afoot for building society staff to offer regular financial advice at a community hub run by the trust. “Nationwide is one of the few commercial finance operators that get it,” says Ryan. “They’re interested in seeing decent, long-term, secure rental and ownership. I don’t know of any other bank or building society offering community support like they do.”

On the other side of the process, Grainger found her new role equally rewarding. “I’m really glad I put myself forward because it was a very positive experience and there is real need,” she says. “As a Nationwide member, I’m pleased to see the society is prepared to give a percentage of their profits to tackle housing issues and I could see the commitment from the staff I met.”

Grainger points out that a relatively small amount of money can make a real difference. “I’ve discovered that by starting something, you can prove a need, which allows you to make a case for further funding. I look forward to remaining involved and seeing how the organisations we were able to support get on.”

Community grants
Find out more about Nationwide Building Society’s Community Grants programme and how to join a Community Board at nationwidecommunitygrants.co.uk