"It helped us breathe more deeply."

Tell us about your organisation?

Wolverton Community Energy was established in 2015 after a Wolverton resident, Marie Osborne, had led an initiative to improve the energy efficiency of the Victorian ‘hard to heat’ homes in the town.

The approach was very practical and community-led from the beginning – often involving knocking on doors or showcasing what had been achieved in Marie’s own end of terrace property.

The group is a community benefit society, with members across the community encouraged to buy shares, and capital funding provided by investors looking to “make a difference”. We now have 77 members and 4 elected Directors.

_{Talking to local school children about energy efficiency}

How do you make a difference?

Today, we work with a wide range of individuals, businesses and voluntary and community organisations across Wolverton and the wider Milton Keynes area to help them become more energy efficient and to reduce the amount of carbon they use.

We have recently launched the Home Energy MK programme, with the support of the Milton Keynes Council.

We have installed solar panels on roofs in the community which generate clean, secure energy for local businesses and community organisations.

One project, designed to lower the costs of professional energy retrofit survey advice, shared home surveys with whole streets where houses are architecturally similar or identical. The project tested the value of homeowners being able to share both the survey results and the £500 cost of the home surveys, rather than having each home individually assessed.

Other projects include installing £20,000 worth of LED lighting at a local school, slashing its electricity bills by around 50 per cent.

_{Wolverton Community Energy installed 20 kWp of solar PV on the roof of the Stony Stratford Library and Council building.}

How did social investment help you?

The funding we received in the early days was incredibly piecemeal – often small grant funding that came and went. A pattern had emerged whereby central government would fund projects for clean or efficient energy, the work would get underway, and then the money would suddenly evaporate.

The turning point for us was founding Wolverton Community Energy and being able to generate long-term income through the installation of solar panels – enabled by the social investment we received from Big Issue Invest.

"The investment unlocked more long-term decision-making, allowing us to take more innovative approaches and breathe more deeply before considering our next step. "

It meant we were able to generate a surplus for the first time and able to bring on board the professional advice we needed to grow our energy efficiency work.

We’ve received two tranches of social investment from Big Issue Invest funded via the Growth Fund - a partnership between the National Lottery Community Fund, Big Society Capital and Access - The Foundation for Social Investment. The support from Big Issue Invest has been fundamental – and without it, we would have closed by now. They have worked alongside us since that initial investment. They for they do for us, what we do for others – providing support and advice as we navigate our next step.

_{Camphill Milton Keynes, a Community Social Care Provider for people with learning disabilities and autism, worked with Wolverton Community Energy to install 50 kWp of solar PV on their Willen Park village.}

What does the future look like for Wolverton Community Energy?

We’re thinking more and more about how to help private homeowners that don’t have the wealth to improve their own homes and have recently launched a new programme to provide advice and support to homeowners across Milton Keynes.

There is a buzz around this type of work at the moment - the fantastic thing about community energy is it gives you stability for the long term, and the benefits are held and reinvested locally.

We’re not at the whim of somebody else, not reliant on the council or grants, or the wider electricity market. It is something we should all be doing so much more.

→ Duration: 5 years → Interest Rate: 5/6% → Turnover: £95,000 → Amount invested: £181,000 (Loan) and £10,000 (Grant) over two investments → Date of investment: August 2019 and March 2021 → Product type: Blended finance - part grant, part loan → Programme: Growth Fund

The Growth Fund was a partnership between The National Lottery Community Fund and Big Society Capital, delivered by Access through a range of social investors. It made up to £50m available to support charities and social enterprises to grow and create social impact in their communities. The Growth Fund used a combination of grant funding, made possible thanks to National Lottery players, and loan finance from Big Society Capital and other co-investors, to address specific gaps in the social investment market.

To find out more about social investment and how it could support your organisation, visit Good Finance.

To find out more about Access - The Foundation for Social Investment, visit our website.