At a time when 2,500 small post offices face the axe, villagers are fighting back. They are banding together to save their shops — many of which double as post offices — and even the odd pub by taking them into community ownership. Though they are not in it for profit, they know that such amenities keep the spirit of villages (and property prices) alive.
“If it weren’t for the shop, we’d just have the pub and the church,” says Don Goodman, treasurer of the community shop in Stoke by Clare near Sudbury in Suffolk. “It’s very useful, particularly for elderly people. It saves journeys and people like coming in here. They buy something, then they stand around for half an hour having a chat.”
Stoke by Clare used to have a privately run shop, but it struggled to make enough profit to please the owners. When they sold up, the locals could have made do with a Coop store about three miles away, but they recognised that a local shop generates more than a handy supply of baked beans. It is part of the complex web of interactions that keeps the heart of villages beating, and a factor that draws in new buyers.
So the villagers raised £50,000, with the help of grants from local councils and other bodies, and refurbished an old stable block next to the pub. It opened as a shop in autumn 2005, and has seen steady business ever since.
“We’ve got about 30 volunteers who do two-hour stints each, so it’s not too onerous,” says Goodman. “And the shop is breaking even: it’s been very good.” Next month, they hope to open a post office counter when one of the villagers finishes training.
Estate agents also know the value of post offices to rural communities — so much so that one firm has even stumped up some cash for one. Marchand Petit, an agency in Dartmouth, sponsored a new website for the shop and post office in Dittisham, Devon, believing that what’s good for the local community will in turn be good for house prices and agents’ fees.
“Post offices these days are fighting for survival and battling against closure,” says Peter Gardner, manager of the agency. “The shop’s very presence in the village helps to maintain the value of local properties, so it’s in everyone’s interest to use it.”
Sam Butler, senior partner at estate agency Butler Sherborn in the Cotswolds, agrees: “Villages with a village shop/post office are particularly popular. The presence of a good shop can raise property prices by 5%-10%. It is also an important meeting place, somewhere to stop, chat and catch up with local gossip. In some villages, it is the hub of the community, creating a buzz within the village; this is seen by many househunters as much more preferable to a dead dormitory village.”
According to recent research by the Federation of Small Businesses, 82% of small firms thought the closure of their local post office would have a significant impact on business. But though local stores have struggled (and most villages do not have one in the first place), the idea that the countryside is in terminal decay as cities boom is misleading.
Last year, 105,000 more people moved from urban to rural areas than the other way round, the Commission for Rural Communities says. It estimates that the population of rural England is growing at a faster rate than that of urban areas, and that only about 10% of the new arrivals in the country are retired. If the trend continues, the rural population will grow by nearly 20% over the next 20 years.
That growth offers hope to village shops. According to the Village Retail Services Association (Virsa), there are already 170 community-owned shops in the country and a new one opens every other week.
“Community ownership can often succeed where independent retailers fail,” says Virsa. “We are hoping to see numbers double in five years. The stories are almost unanimously positive. People think twice about moving to a village where you have to get in a car to drive somewhere to get milk. Just from a social point of view — keeping people in contact — they are beneficial. So most community shops have a big impact on property prices.”
But just how hard hard is it for a community to set up a shop?
“My advice is that it’s a big job, but worthwhile,” says David Hope-Mason, a retired publisher who is now chairman of the village store in Ropley, Hampshire. “You need a lot of volunteers, the skills of retired professionals and persistence. But there’s undoubtedly a move to villages organising their own shops and I’m confident that ours is sustainable.”
Ropley is a classic case of how villages are evolving. A fairly widespread settlement of about 1,600 people, it used to have a shop and post office at its centre. When the owner of the freehold decided to retire and sell up, nobody was interested in buying the shop as a going concern. As closure threatened, however, villagers suddenly realised what a valuable asset they stood to lose.
“There’s no public transport in the village, so everyone would have to drive just to get basics,” says Hope-Mason. “Quite a lot of home businesses have also sprung up in Ropley, and the post office was very useful for them.”
About 300 villagers formed a not-for-profit organisation, with the aim of starting a shop and post office, with any surplus being ploughed back into village projects. They raised £20,000 within the village from contributions and loans, and sought grants from local councils, Virsa and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Dealing with Defra proved to be a “bureaucratic nightmare”, but provided £40,000. In total, the villagers raised £100,000 — enough to lease and refurbish a small building as a shop. “It covered the cost of restructuring, despite all the crazy health and safety regulations,” says Hope-Mason.
Last October the new store opened, run by one salaried employee and a raft of volunteers. The project is already benefiting other businesses. “We carry 600-700 lines, but we try to source as much as we can from local suppliers,” says Hope-Mason. “Wine from a local vineyard is one of our best sellers.”
One might have thought that supermarket giants would not take kindly to such upstart rivals. But quite the opposite seems to be the case, at least so far, judging by the experience of West Meon, another village in Hampshire.
Several well-heeled residents made indefinite interest-free loans to provide initial capital for West Meon’s community shop. This helped the village to obtain grants and matching funds from local councils, Virsa and the Post Office, because they deemed the project properly funded and serious.
But West Meon also received significant help from Tesco and Sainsbury. Tesco donated old but perfectly serviceable racks and freezers, and even supplied the people to install them. An expert from Sainsbury provided early advice on layout and design.
“I can’t speak too highly of them — they were brilliant,” says Rupert Younger, one of the residents involved in the project. “They wanted to play a part in helping local communities.” He believes that community-owned shops are the only viable long-term solution for villages. In West Meon, residents formed a mutual company, and so far more than 430 of the 800 villagers have bought £10 shares. “All the names go up in the shop and there’s a great community feel,” says Younger. “It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Not all projects need be so ambitious. Community-owned shops have opened in an old ship container, in prefabricated cabins and in a converted bus shelter. On the other hand, one in Cornwall has proved so successful that it moved last year into purpose-built new accommodation that includes space for offices and a doctor’s consulting room.
West Meon villagers were so pleased with the results of their project that they closed the high street one day for four hours and held a street party. “It was great — everyone felt a real sense of community,“ says Younger.
And that is what many newcomers in search of their rural idyll are seeking, according to Bob Bickersteth, managing director of The London Office, which provides a shop window in the capital for rural estate agents.
“Only about 37% of our applicants say they want to live in a village,” he says. “But the reality is a lot higher. In the past 12 months, more than 70% of applicants have bought in or just outside a village. Being completely isolated in the countryside is not popular any more.”
And if the village has a shop, so much the better.
Do it yourself
- Get everyone involved. Hold a public meeting and carry out a village survey to assess demand for a community-owned shop
- Set up a committee to lead the project
- Find out how people are prepared to help, for example, by donating their money or time
- Work out what services people want, for example, post office, prescription delivery, newspapers
- Use local skills. Even a small community will have hidden talents such as bookkeeping
- For information on setting up a store, visit www.acre.org.uk and www.virsa.org
- To see if your village could be eligible for a grant, visit www.access-funds.co.uk and www.awardsforall.org.uk
- For advice on running a small business, visit www.bitc.org.uk
- Other useful websites: www.villageshops.org; www.communitypubs.org; www.pubisthehub.org.uk; www.enterprisefund.co.uk; www.ruralrevival.org.uk
