Overview

We want to raise sufficient money via a community share offer to buy a suitable site to build an affordable, accessible, safe, green, beautiful Women's Centre

About us

We are a group of passionate women of all ages and ethnicities convinced of the huge value that women's organisations bring to our society.

Team

We are all volunteers. Our board is

We have a number of volunteers across the country.

We are delighted that igloo have agreed to be our developer http://www.iglooregeneration.co.uk  if we can raise enough money to find, buy and develop a suitable site.

Everyone buying a share and promoting the idea to others is contributing to us reaching that goal.

igloo believes in “doing well by doing good”. igloo say ” We fund, deliver and animate great Places. Great for People and for the Planet.” They are an ideal developer for a Women’s Centre providing space for organisations addressing women’s needs, providing advice, counselling and signposting, dealing with sexual violence, co-ordinating campaigns, offering training, providing creative opportunities. And with a creche provided on site!

igloo have delivered over £1 billion of development and have the expertise Rooms London need. If our model for giving communities ownership of valuable spaces in perpetuity works, then igloo are in a great position to roll this out across the UK.

Offer details

Rooms London is a Community Benefit Society created by Rooms of our Own and registered with the Financial Conduct Authority. Rooms London is looking to raise £1mn in community shares to help to buy a site for an affordable, accessible, safe, green and beautiful Women's Centre. 

The minimum target for the Share Offer is £500,000 which is the amount that would be taken seriously as the deposit on a site. The upper target is £1.000,000 but if we achieve more than this the money will be used to reduce the need for other loans and social investment. 

There is a single class of shares with a nominal value of £1. The minimum investment is £100 and there is a maximum investment of £50,000 by any one individual investor. Registered organisations may buy shares but need to nominate one of their number to have their name on the shares and attend AGMs.

The value of your shares will not increase, but may decrease if the liabilities plus share capital of the society exceed its assets and the directors therefore decide to write down the value of the shares. Shares are non-transferable; you cannot sell them to someone else. 

All assets of the Society are subject to an asset lock. This means that they can only be transferred to non-profit making organisations to further the objects of the society and cannot, for example, be distributed to members.

Once you are issued with your shares you will become a member of the Society. As a member you will be entitled to full voting rights at general meetings and to stand for election as a director of the society. All members have one vote irrespective of the number of shares they own.

Alexandra Gallagher (https://www.alexandragallagherarat.com) has created a beautiful artwork especially for us.

When our Women's Centre is built, this piece will be displayed in reception. Meanwhile you can see it greyed out on our website and divided into 1,000 squares. The first one thousand people to buy shares will have a square allocated to them with a number and that square will be revealed. Those who wish it will have their names displayed; on the website and/or in the finished building.

Use of funds

We hope to raise our first £1million via this share offer. Once we have the minimum of £500,000 we can start to investigate the purchase of a suitable site. We should then be able to drawn down other sources of finance from loans, soft loans, grants, social investment bodies, our developer, philanthropic donations and other fundraising activities.

We estimate that the likely total cost of the project will be in the region of £23mn. This includes the cost of the land, the professionals fees including planning permission and surveys, the construction costs for the centre and the housing, and the developer's profit of 10%. We will build sufficient flats for sale or rent to cover the costs of the Women's Centre. For example, if 50 flats were built and sold for £500,000 each that would deliver £25,000,000. Should there be a shortfall, we believe that once the building is in place we would be in an excellent position to obtain grants for fitting out the Centre. If the site is large enough and the finances allow, we would also provide some genuinely affordable housing, ideally in partnership with another Community land Trust and if possible one that was interested in a Women's Housing Co-operative.

Why it's important

Many women's organisations have closed and many are under threat of closure because of the funding crisis and problems with premises. Research has found that demand for women-only services rose by 83% while funding fell by 50% during the last decade. (Women's Resource Centre "Hearing Women's Voices" 2018)

These are some of the benefits reported by women attending women-only spaces:-

• gaining confidence
• learning new skills
• opportunities for creativity
• opportunities for campaigning
• possibilities for "difficult" discussions
• sharing strategies against violence /discrimination
• having fun in a safe space
• getting a job
• improving physical /mental health
• keeping off drugs /alcohol
• learning English
• re-integrating post imprisonment
• getting signposted to the right support
• sharing resources

We believe there are enough women who value the idea of having a women's space that will be theirs in perpetuity to raise sufficient funds to buy our own site. And we hope that many men will also be interested so support this be investing in Rooms London.

The building will be owned in perpetuity by the women who use it, putting an end to valuable organisations folding due to problems with premises and funding. We know that there is something life-affirming about women coming together in a dedicated space to organise, campaign, debate, support and create. The first building will be in London, but we hope that people across the country and beyond will love this idea so much that they will be prepared to invest. If Rooms London is successful, we hope to roll out the model to other cities in the UK.