What is a CBS?
A Community Benefit Society (CBS) is a non profit organisation set up to benefit the community. This means that any profits or benefits are re-invested into the community.
The Wards Corner CBS was founded in 2022 by a coalition of grassroots groups and campaigning organisations in Tottenham who have been fighting to save the market and surrounding buildings from demolition for 20 years.
The CBS will restore and run the historic Wards Corner buildings for the benefit of the community. Its structure and mission has been shaped by traders, local residents and local businesses through a series of online workshops and surveys in 2021, and further consultation at the start 2022. More information on our governance can be found in our Rules.
We have the formal support of the Seven Sister Market Traders Association (SSMTA) which represents 74% of the licensed indoor market traders.
The CBS is currently lead by the Board of Directors, voted on by members every year during our Annual General Meeting in September.
Anyone is able to stand as a Board member – and we encourage anyone interested to do so. Find out more here.
Where does the money go?
Unlike corporate businesses where money goes straight to distant shareholders, community benefit societies reinvest all the money they make back into the local community.
The business plan for the Community Plan predicts that we will make a significant profit each year from renting out spaces in the building. This money will cover the costs of maintaining the building and its community spaces as well as investing in local community projects to benefit everyone who lives and works in Tottenham.
Who makes decisions?
Community benefit societies don’t just reinvest money back in the local community, they are owned and run by the local community. This works through a ‘one-member-one-vote’ structure. Anyone who lives or works in Tottenham can hold one CBS ‘share’ which gives them a democratic say over how the CBS is run and what is prioritised – become a member today!
Why is traditional development failing Tottenham?
We are now used to seeing high streets up and down the UK with empty properties and key heritage sites neglected. Leaving local development to big business investments extracts large amounts of capital that could be redistributed locally, increasing job opportunities and improving the local environment.
A good way to view this is just to consider the closer you live to something the more invested you are in making it better, so why would a landlord based in another area, or sometimes many investors based around the world, have any interest in the wider community?
What is ‘Community Wealth Building’?
The Wards Corner Community Plan is based on an idea called ‘Community Wealth Building’, inspired by movements in the Basque Country and Cleveland, Ohio. Community Wealth Building is a new approach to local economic development which redirects wealth back into the local economy, and puts control into the hands of local people.
When we talk about keeping ‘wealth’ in our community, we are referring to how people in the area feel the wider social, cultural and environmental benefits of our project, as well as the economic ones . This is often called ‘social value’ and can be calculated in different ways. Councils and other public bodies are starting to prioritise ‘social value’ when they decide which organisations to choose in bidding processes for leases on buildings.
We are working with IPPR and Common Wealth to develop calculations for the estimated social value the Wards Corner Community will create for Tottenham.
