Shared ownership: communities are ready, but they need developers at the table 

Across Scotland, communities have huge aspirations for community energy. Backed by dedicated staff and volunteers, communities are putting enormous amounts of time and energy getting projects off the ground and engaging with commercial developers about shared ownership opportunities. 

There is also a strong network of intermediary organisations working to support them, providing funding, expert advice and practical support, including Local Energy Scotland through CARES, DTAS, and Community Energy Scotland. 

Despite this support and community ambition community owned energy only represents around 1% and Shared Ownership only 0.2% of onshore wind capacity in Scotland.  In many areas the electricity grid is so constrained that shared ownership is the only viable option for community organisations to take a stake in the energy system. And still, for many communities, progressing shared ownership continues to feel like an uphill battle. 

Research done by the Centre for Local Economies (CLES) on who benefits financially from Scotland’s onshore wind shows a shocking wealth leakage in this sector. CLES found that 90% of profit generated by commercial windfarms leaves Scottish communities and is paid as dividends to corporate shareholders. Continuing with this business-as-usual approach, with little to no incentives or mandates to change ownership structures, will mean a continued wealth drain on our communities.  

What we’re hearing from communities:  

At our recent Shared Ownership Peer Learning Group, which had more than 60 organisations signed up, we heard directly from communities about their experiences of trying to make shared ownership happen. 

One of the strongest messages was that capable, experienced community organisations can spend years negotiating, access publicly funded professional legal and financial support and still end up without a viable shared ownership offer. 

Developer engagement came through as one of the most consistent barriers. 

” We’re talking to a number of developers (about shared ownership), but the impression we get is that they’re resistant to shared ownership because they think it’s a faff. So either it has to be mandated, or there needs to be a financial incentive for those developers to engage. What we need is something to really hold their feet to the fire to encourage them to engage. “ 

Several communities described developers as supportive of shared ownership in principle but said this did not always translate into meaningful offers or negotiations in practice. Communities also questioned whether the current voluntary approach gives them enough leverage to progress these conversations. 

Timing is part of this challenge. Shared ownership opportunities can come too late in the development process. Buying into a project later can also mean doing so at a much higher value than if the community had been involved earlier. However, buying in at an earlier stage of the project means communities may have to bear the risk of higher-than-expected construction costs.  

There were also questions about what constitutes a meaningful shared ownership offer. An opportunity existing on paper does not necessarily mean that the terms make it possible or financially viable for a community to take it up. 

“This example is a repowering (on Forestry and Land Scotland land). On paper, there’s a very nice offer, 1% free, up to 5% at cost, and up to 49 percent to be negotiated. ….. So, you start trying to negotiate that and they (the developer) say you can have up to the 49%, but only after it’s been built and at market value.  

Let’s just say… The wind farm costs 10 million pounds to build. Now, they are going to offer you 50% at market value. A market value might be 20 million. So the community pay for their half at 10 million, and that’s paid for the developers 10 million pounds, which they’ve used to build the wind farm. So the community has actually paid for it (the windfarm). And of course, it’s a very poor deal for the community because they’re not in from the start.  

This is on Forestry and Land Scotland land. It is government land. And the requirement in the tender is that the developer makes a meaningful offer to the community. But that’s it, it’s not defined, it’s not followed up, it’s not controlled in any way.  

What is a meaningful offer?” 

Communities also need the right conditions to invest 

Access to affordable finance remains another major barrier. For large renewable developments, even a relatively small stake can require millions of pounds of investment, which can feel overwhelming or simply impossible for a community organisation to pursue. 

We hope the recent funding announcements for CARES and the wider Great British Energy People’s Power programme can help unlock some of this gap. 

Funding timescales also need to reflect the reality of developing shared ownership projects. These projects can take years. Communities need resource funding to build relationships, negotiate, develop governance and progress an investment, rather than short bursts of funding that don’t match the development timeline. 

But the message we heard was clear: community capacity is not the whole story. 

” When I hear about building flexibility in for communities and more capacity for communities, I think that’s great. But the reality is that’s not where the problem lies. That is not why shared ownership isn’t being taken up and we have to look at the fact that the developers and the borrowing are the issues, so how do we tackle that?” 

Communities are ambitious, they are accessing support, they are developing their knowledge and expertise. Staff and volunteers are putting in the hours, and they are actively trying to engage, but they need willing partners on the other side of the table. 

Developers and the public sector have an important role to play: 

” My message would be to UK government, Scottish government, GB Energy, they need to robustly challenge developers to actually practise what they preach in saying that they are highly supportive of shared ownership. Whether that is mandating shared ownership, which would certainly help. But in the interim, because it takes time for legislation to be enacted, there needs to be a robust challenge to developers, because in my experience, they are just not delivering in terms of meaningful discussions with community groups.” 

While shared ownership remains voluntary, making it work is going to require meaningful engagement and goodwill from developers. There are commercial developers who can see the value of this. 

A community stake in a renewable energy project can create a long-term relationship between the development and the place hosting it. Communities become invested in maintaining their ownership stake and deriving a long-term benefit from the project. 

So our call to developers is simple: engage with communities early, meaningfully and with a genuine intention to explore what shared ownership could look like and make a credible offer. 

Blog by: Julia Carreiro Rolim

For more information or support get in touch with us at: info@demcoraticfinance.scot

By Laura Bedford, Democratic Finance Development Officer 

Over the last year, the Democratic Finance team has been exploring the community bond landscape in Scotland and across the UK. We knew of a handful of examples of community bonds (a type of debt security issued by community groups) in Scotland, and we knew that they were being used extensively in community renewables in England on platforms such as Ethex, but we wanted to gain a deeper understanding of what community bonds looked like in practice, what they were used for and who was using them. This will help us develop our programme, ensure that we understand the demand for this type of finance in Scotland and how we can best support groups access it, if there is indeed demand.

We’re publishing two documents today:

• A brief summary report looking at what community bonds are, who can issue them, and a high level summary of our findings on what community bonds look like across the UK and in Scotland. Click here to read.
• A full report for those of you who like to dig a little deeper into the data. Click here to read.

This research has highlighted some areas that we’d like to explore further.

We can see that the use of community bonds in Scotland has been quite limited to date in comparison to England – we have some hunches about why that is but more research could open this up further. We would like to compare this type of finance to commercial and social investment, as well as community shares to understand why people choose to use this type of finance as well as/instead of others, and in what circumstances. This will help us understand when we could suggest this to groups we’re working with as we explore their democratic finance options.

We can also see that there’s a need to raise awareness about this type of finance in Scotland as part of a suite of democratic finance options, and discuss whether this is a type of finance that groups would be interested in, and could see the use for alongside options more commonly used in Scotland such as community shares or social investment. That’s why we’re planning to run a session for DTAS members and clients of the DF programme in September to present this research in a bit more depth, with a discussion about whether groups can see the application of this type of finance to situations they’ve faced historically or projects they are currently developing.

Look out for more information on this session on the DTAS Eventbrite and we’ll send a reminder out nearer the time. In the meantime, enjoy the reports and fire over any questions to laura@dtascot.org.uk 

This Early Stage Toolkit for Shared Ownership is designed for community members and organisations who are exploring shared ownership for the first time.

It has been produced by the CARES Community Energy Launchpad programme – which is delivered by Community Energy Scotland and Development Trusts Association Scotland.

Download full toolkit here: Shared-Ownership-Early-Stage-Toolkit

Our newsletter is back! We will be sending this newsletter once a quarter to communities, partners, and supporters interested in our work.

Whether you’ve worked with us before, are exploring a project idea, or are simply interested in democratic finance approaches, we hope this newsletter gives a useful snapshot of recent activity, new resources and opportunities for support.

About the Programme:

Democratic Finance Scotland is a programme of support run by DTAS, helping community-led organisations explore and use alternative methods of raising finance from their local community.

Our support areas include:

• community shares
• crowdfunding
• local legacy giving
• community energy & shared ownership
• community bonds
• community lotteries
• CBS governance support

Get in touch with us to discuss a community project or idea that we could support with!

Email: info@democraticfinance.scot

Keep an eye on the below organisations who are planning a share offer launch!

• Edinburgh Community Solar Cooperative

• Elie Kirk Community Enterprise

• Whiting Bay CBS

• PalCafe, Glasgow

This year so far we’ve:

• Launched 14 Democratic Finance offers
• Supported 1,591+ citizens investing into community-owned businesses
• Helped community-owned businesses create 36 job

Read our full annual report to find out more about the Democratic Finance programme and the wonderful community organisations we support!

Democratic-Finance-Annual-Report-25-26-Final-1.pdf

10 years of community shares!

This year marks over a decade since the programme launched in its original form as Community Shares Scotland. Over the last 10 years, the team has supported:

• 70 community share offers
• £21 million raised
• 21,468 citizen investors

Our new report, A Decade of Community Shares in Scotland, reflects on that journey and the diversity of projects communities have delivered through local investment.

From community shops and pubs to renewable energy and Scotland’s first community-owned whisky distillery, it’s been inspiring to see communities using democratic finance to retain and strengthen important local assets.

Read the report here: A Decade of Community Shares in Scotland – Democratic Finance Scotland  

Democratic Finance in Action

We’ve recently published two new case studies highlighting the role community shares can play in strengthening community ownership.

Action Porty raised £190,000 from 1,064 shareholders to support the redevelopment of Bellfield’s Celebration Hall. A Democratic Finance microgrant supported a creative engagement campaign including events, videos, flyering, social media and PR activity.

Read the case study: Action Porty – Democratic Finance Scotland

We’ve also published a new video case study with the community behind the Red Lion Inn in Culross, developed with Plunkett UK.

Their 2021 share offer raised £100,000 from over 400 investors, helping secure community ownership of the pub.

Watch the video: Red Lion Inn, Culross – Democratic Finance Scotland

Community Energy and Shared Ownership:

We have recently been expanding our community energy work and are happy to announce our part in the Community Energy Launchpad, delivered with Community Energy Scotland and Local Energy Scotland. We support communities at the early stages of exploring community energy and shared ownership projects.

Our team can help you explore:

• Democratic governance structures
• Community-led finance and funding options
• Shared ownership opportunities
• Early-stage community engagement and developer relationship building

We are also working with Development Trusts across Scotland to explore opportunities for collaboration around shared ownership developments.

To find out more about this support contact: morven@dtascot.org.uk

We also run a shared ownership peer learning group for those interested in finding out more about these opportunities.

This event is only open to DTAS and Community Energy Scotland member organisations. Follow our Eventbrite page to stay up to date on the next session and other events.

Policy and Sector Update:

How can Scotland’s renewable energy transition deliver wider, long-term community benefit through a Scottish Community Wealth Fund?

The Scottish Community Coalition on Energy, Development Trusts Association Scotland, Community Energy Scotland and Community Land Scotland, recently commissioned a new study from CLES exploring this question.

Read the study here

New Resource – Crowdfunding:

We’re pleased to share a new practical guide to crowdfunding, produced in partnership with the New Futures: Former Places of Worship programme at DTAS.

It includes:

• Crowdfunding checklists and timelines
• Guidance on online platforms
• Campaign planning advice
• Case studies from across Scotland

Read the resource  New Crowdfunding guide for community groups – Democratic Finance Scotland

Read our full annual report to find out more about the Democratic Finance programme and the wonderful community organisations we support!

Democratic Finance Annual Report 25-26 Final (1)

As part of our Democratic Finance Programme reporting requirements, we asked all supported groups from the past year (Oct 2024 – Sept 2025) to complete an Impact and Support Survey. We received 12 very comprehensive responses and a summarised report can be found here – Democratic Finance Case Impact Survey Report 24-25

Headlines include:

• Evidence that we are far exceeding our quantitative targets for number of groups supported and number of engaged citizen evidence
• Strong qualitative evidence that democratic finance offers and support from Democratic Finance Scotland increases organisational resilience, confidence and trading success.