First Community Loan for Impetus

A £10,000 loan has been provided to a community group in Cookley, Worcestershire as gap funding for their park and play area project. This is the first loan of its type given by Impetus.

Cookley Local Agenda 21's "A Space For All" is developing an area of land, previously bequethed to the community, into a new playground and BMX track.

The project has a number of different funders, some of whom pay grants in arrears of the works being completed. This is a common situation for community groups undertaking regeneration projects. On the whole these groups are run by volunteers and are without any assets or regular income. The cashflow problems inherent to capital programmes are an additional burden to the day-to-day project management.

Loans to community groups, and other social enterprises, are provided at 3% over base rate.