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Stage 0 is the beginning of the journey. You may be a small collective with a shared goal to secure long term affordable space, or a growing organisation looking for a different way to use buildings.

We reached out to Power to Change who supported us with a grant of £10K to explore feasibility, register a community benefit society, and spend time researching need, growing our network of collaborators and supporters, identifying opportunities, and lobbying stakeholders for support. We also spoke with Locality, and reached out to other organisations who are further along their community benefit society journey. 

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Working with a design team, develop a list of requirements for a site search, and prepare an outline business case, including reviewing project risks, and project budget.

Carry out a number of site visits, site appraisals, and identify a building that best delivers our requirements. By the end of stage 00 you should have the information at hand to start refining your building search, have an idea of what your fundraising targets might be, and have some documents and drawings to help further your aims.

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Buildings cost money, so at this early stage it’s essential to establish how the project could be funded, looking at a combination of a community share offer, fundraising, grants, partnerships and business activities / pop ups.

Finding the right building can be challenging, there are lots of criteria to consider before shortlisting and investing feasibility money. It is important not only to limit yourselves to what appears available, but also a thorough exploration of the whole area, speaking to owners and agents and searching land registry. Invest time in finding out the status of buildings that excite you the most, and take it from there. 

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Working with a design team, prepare a project brief including project outcomes, establish quality aspirations and space requirements, carry out feasibility studies and establish a budget source. Gather site information such as site surveys and searches, prepare a project programme and project plan.

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Knowing what you are going to use the building for and ensuring it will be financially viable go hand in hand. Getting to the point where you are confident it is a use that allows you to operate in line with your principles, values and needs is critical. Undertaking robust business planning and financial modelling allows you to test uses until you can find a model and offer that enables enough income for you to reinvest in the ongoing provision. At this stage you may need to reach out to other potential collaborators, funders and possible building occupiers. We reached out to our local authority, who have supported us with a £20K grant to carry out further feasibility work.

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Working with a design team, prepare an architectural concept, including strategic engineering requirements, such as power, lighting, services and heating, aligned to a cost plan, prepare a project strategy and co-design an outline specification. Carry out design reviews with project stakeholders, and prepare a design programme. At the end of stage 02 you should have a well thought out, feasible proposal, with funders identified, potential anchor tenants lined up, and ready to share your project with the world.

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Going ahead with the acquisition of a building should follow the previous steps to ensure the asset offers the right accommodation and location for your needs. Whether you are leasing, buying or negotiating an asset transfer, it is critical to appoint professionals such as surveyors and lawyers to ensure everything is done properly and paying a fair price. This should be done in cooperation with funders and investors, as they will have experience and knowledge from previous projects they have supported. By this stage, heads of terms with any collaborators or tenants should be established.

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Working with a design team, carry out design studies, engineering analysis and cost exercises. Issue coordinated designs aligned to the cost plan, and establish outline specification and programme. At the end of stage 03 it is usual to obtain relevant permissions for the site.

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Most of the work to generate productive uses and identify partners with shared principles who may become tenants in your building will have been done during the process of business planning for the operation of the building. It is also likely you will already have many ideas of your own. However, once the building is yours it is good practice to continuously engage with local people, groups and partners on developing the space.

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Working with a design team, develop architectural and engineering technical design, Prepare and coordinate design team building systems information, prepare and integrate specialist subcontractor building systems information 

Prepare stage design programme. At the end of stage 04 you should have a “shovel ready project”, with building control sign off and detailed costs ready to tender.

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The build phase of a project is equally exciting and daunting. During this stage it is important to keep any funders, stakeholders, investors and partners updated with progress, and to collaborate and partner with anchor tenants. This stage of the project is good for gathering further interest, supporters and press.

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During the build phase of the project, working with the design team tasks include finaliing site logistics and overseeing the fit out of the building. The progress of construction is monitored against the construction programme, and the construction quality is inspected. 

Site queries are resolved as required, the building commissioning is undertaken and a building manual is prepared and issued. At the end of stage 05 you should have a completed, signed off building, ready to make an impact and re-invest surplus back into the community.

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Once the building is handed over, it is ready to be occupied. Having a completed building is much easier to market than “off plan” so your time may be busy giving tours and signing up occupiers that have been unable to commit until now. A website and open days will help attract footfall to the space, along with an exciting launch event where we can celebrate our new property. Things like insurance, utility bills, license agreements / leases, cleaning and maintenance must all be considered.

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At the handover stage, the responsibility for looking after the building is handed over to the community benefit society, any defects are rectified and a review of project performance is undertaken. initial aftercare tasks are carried out, including light touch post occupancy evaluation. By the end of stage 06, you should have a building ready to become a busy thriving space full of activity, occupiers and joy.

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The intention behind all of this work is to break the cycle of bad landlordism. Whilst for some tenants it may be enough that their rent is affordable and the space is safe and pleasant, others will want to be involved in decisions about the operation of the building and the evolution of what is delivered there. Having well understood and co-designed ways for this to happen will ensure the collective resources, creativity and wisdom within the building are maximised for the wellbeing of all, and become assets that can help leverage further community ownership.

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Once the building is in use, final design team tasks include implementing a facilities management and asset management plan, undertake a post occupancy evaluation of building performance in use and verify project outcomes including sustainability outcomes.