Providing Access to a Wide Range of Services

Around 300 village shops and 200 pubs shut in 2024 alone, alongside school closures, reduced public services, limited healthcare and inadequate public transport.

When such businesses close, they leave people without access to vital supplies and services and increase the risk of isolation. Older people, and those experiencing poverty, disability, and poor health, are especially affected. This often forces them to leave their communities and social networks and the wider rural environment that is part of their identify, and sense of belonging.

Community-owned businesses, supported by Plunkett, are reversing this trend. Thriving where others fail, they offer more than basic services – acting as multi-service hubs that proactively reach out to support those most vulnerable in a rural community. Typically serving an immediate population of 500 residents, with a further 2,000 able to access their services from surrounding parishes, this means an estimated 2 million people currently benefit rural community businesses, of which 25% of beneficiaries are likely to be over the age of 65 and more vulnerable to poverty, isolation and loneliness.

In this session we will be looking at ways in which community-owned businesses can expand the services on offer to support their local communities. We will be hearing from Laura Sewell, the Executive Director of Flo's in Oxford. A community-owned hub whose work has become a cornerstone of their local infrastructure. We will also be exploring ways in which we might offer more when devising business plans.

There will be a chance to ask questions of both guests and of Plunkett too. We hope to see as many of you there as possible!