The Story Sanctuary will be incorporated as a Charitable Community Benefit Society (CCBS).
In her original proposal to Croydon Council, Jill always intended for the community hub to be an independent, co-operatively owned non-profit organisation.
A co-operative organisation is democratically owned and controlled by its members, to meet their shared needs. The members can be its customers, employees, residents or suppliers, who have a say in how the co-op is run.
The co-operative values
There are 10 values that all co-ops are based on:
- Caring for others
- Democracy
- Equity
- Equality
- Honesty
- Openness
- Self help
- Self responsibility
- Solidarity
- Social responsibility
Next steps
A Collective are currently temporary licence holders with Croydon Council (to get the project off the ground) but hope to handover to the new organisation as soon as possible after March 2026, ready to negotiate a lease from the council.
We’ve secured some funding from Cooperatives UK to support this process and will be working with experienced consultants from Co-op Culture who have helped create cooperatives for over 20 years.
More about Charitable Community Benefit Societies
A CCBS is a democratic, community focused legal structure registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) that operates for the benefit of the wider community. It will have an ‘exempt charity’ status and therefore receive mostly the same benefits and exemptions as a registered charity but is not regulated by the Charity Commission.
A CCBS is owned by its members, who control it democratically, on a one-member one-vote basis, but members must not receive preferential treatment over the wider public, and any profits have to be applied for community benefit rather than being distributed.
Basic membership is usually very low cost, but the CBS can also raise funds through community share offerings, allowing the public to further invest. Every shareholder member has a say (a single vote) regardless of how many shares they own.
We’ll be sharing updates regularly, but for more information, please get in touch.