Co-operatives UK and the Development Trust Association, along with (Department of) Communities and Local Government and others, are currently running a scheme to do with helping community-based projects finance capital infrastructure using the Industrial and Provident Society (ie co-operative) model to issue shares and bonds. I attended their first briefing seminar in Waterloo on 22nd April; and it was a very interesting event. Unlike many of the conferences we need to attend, full of empty promises, back-slapping and whiff of corruption, this event was extremely informative and useful, as well as being refreshingly down-to-earth.

The conference explored the history of community bonds and shares, started 150 years ago before the advent of the welfare state, and its resurgence over the last 10 years, with 41 new ventures raising