This article is part of a three-part Good Money Week series exploring how Ethex investments are driving positive change – from community-owned energy to fairer finance and building community wealth.
Across the UK, communities are finding new ways to take control of the spaces and resources that shape daily life. Known as community assets, these are places or projects owned collectively and run for local benefit, from housing and farmland to business hubs and cultural venues.
For years, valued facilities have been lost to cuts, rising costs or private sales. Community ownership offers an alternative, by protecting important spaces while generating income that can be reinvested locally.
With the help of impact investment platforms such as Ethex, ordinary savers can play a role in securing these assets for the future. Since its launch in 2013, Ethex has raised over £120 million for more than 200 organisations, spanning community energy, affordable housing, ethical finance and shared assets.
Its sister initiative, Energise Africa, extends this principle overseas, funding solar projects that bring clean, affordable power to families in sub-Saharan Africa. Together, they show how community ownership can deliver measurable social and environmental benefits at home and abroad.
Why direct impact investing matters now more than ever
Why community assets matter
Community-owned assets are more than bricks, land or infrastructure. They act as anchors, providing stability, jobs and services that might otherwise disappear. Revenues generated don’t leave the area and are instead recycled into projects such as youth programmes, food banks or biodiversity initiatives.
They sit alongside other forms of community investment, such as affordable finance, which helps households manage essential costs more fairly. Together, these approaches show how money can be directed to support people and places that need it most.
Research by Power to Change shows that every £1 spent by community businesses delivers far greater local benefit than the same pound spent in private or public hands, thanks to the way profits are reinvested and relationships strengthened.
Recent examples
Several projects supported through Ethex highlight what community ownership looks like in practice.
- Stockwood CBS raised investment to manage a business park alongside an organic farm in Worcestershire. The project combines renewable generation on-site with the long-term stewardship of farmland, protecting it for the benefit of both local people and wildlife.
- Otley Common raised funds to transform a former church in Otley, West Yorkshire, into a climate-positive cultural hub. The hub will host community groups, local businesses, an events space, a café, co-working facilities and a retrofitted farmhouse, keeping value and activity at the heart of the town.
These examples show how community assets, whether farmland, housing or land held in trust, can be managed to deliver long-term financial, environmental and social returns simultaneously.
Otley Common
Why investors are interested
Investors are drawn to these projects because they combine the potential for a fair return with outcomes that can be measured in real communities. Homes are kept affordable, farmland is preserved, jobs are created and services are secured.
As Lisa Ashford, CEO of Ethex, says: “Community assets give people a stake in the places they care about. They keep value rooted in local areas rather than being extracted elsewhere.”
Looking ahead
The potential of community ownership is huge. From pubs and post offices to woodlands and housing estates, thousands of local groups are exploring ways to secure assets for public benefit.
Policy shifts, such as the Community Ownership Fund, are starting to support this trend, but much of the momentum comes from ordinary people willing to invest.
Just as community energy gives people a stake in the clean energy transition, and affordable finance helps households and workers access fairer opportunities, community assets provide a way to protect and improve the places that make neighbourhoods thrive.
For investors, they are an opportunity to see money work harder – not just delivering a return, but strengthening the fabric of communities for the long term.
This article is in partnership with Ethex.
