Frequently Asked Questions

The Bell Inn Iden Community Limited (hereafter referred to as ‘the Society’) is a community benefit society registered with the Financial Conduct Authority. This structure provides several advantages, such as ensuring that liability is limited, so individual investors will not be responsible for any losses that the enterprise might incur. It also simplifies the process of issuing shares to the public and ensures that all the assets owned by the Society can only be used to benefit the community.

We need your investment to purchase The Bell. Without sufficient investment from the community, we will be unable to buy the building to create the benefits that we are planning, meaning the opportunity to create a worthwhile community facility would be lost. The share offer is open to anyone aged 16 or over.

The residents of Iden will benefit directly from having a vital amenity preserved for future generations, through use of the facility itself but also because The Bell will play a part in making the area a stronger, more vibrant and cohesive community in which to live. No financial benefit accrues to either the Management Committee or individual shareholders from any funds held in the Society’s bank account. That money is ring-fenced to be spent on the pub and the community.

We anticipate and will require the business to be a profitable venture. We have carefully evaluated its strengths and weaknesses and our projections show that we can establish a successful business. It is well proven that communities that work together to set up such an enterprise will support it in the future.

The Management Committee consists of a group of local residents who care passionately about The Bell and the benefits it can bring to our area. They have no personal financial interest in the project, above and beyond their own investment in community shares. They have voluntarily contributed a large amount of their time to the project. This has been supplemented with advice and considerable support from many people and organisations.
Short biographies of the members of the Management Committee can be found on the who we are page.

The Management Committee will oversee the business and ensure that it meets the needs of our community. We intend to attract a tenant to oversee the day-to-day running of the pub. When selecting a tenant, we will look for someone who shares our vision for the pub as a community venture with strong social and environmental benefits, and who has a track record of running this type of business. There will be governance and reporting arrangements in place to monitor financial and other performance. We will ensure that there is an ‘open book’ approach to sharing feedback and other information between the Society and the tenant. Shareholders will be invited to meetings to discuss significant decisions about The Bell.

Yes. Everyone who owns shares has an equal voice, regardless of the size of their investment. One person, one vote. In the case of joint memberships, one person is nominated to vote on behalf of the joint members.

Your shares become part of your estate, identical to any other assets you hold. They can therefore be dealt with by your executor, again identical to any other assets you hold.

If the share offer exceeds our target of £300,000 we will be able to bring forward some of our planned investments in The Bell, such as improving the toilet facilities, extending the kitchen or enlarging the dining area.

Because we intend to pay interest on shares, we have set an upper limit for the share offer of £400,000. If demand for shares exceeds this amount the allocation of shares will be ‘pared back’ proportionally. Those who requested the largest allocations will receive the greatest reduction, while those who requested smaller allocations will receive a lower reduction. Those who requested the minimum shareholding will not receive any reduction.

Iden is a small village and we need to raise a large amount of money to acquire The Bell. If we are to hit our target of raising £300,000 from the community share offer, we will need many people in the village to make a significant contribution. We consider £500 to be the minimum level of investment that will allow us to hit our target, although we will need most people to invest more than this.

Yes. We recognise that the minimum investment of £500 is not affordable for everyone, so we will allow groups of people to apply for joint ownership of shares. However, only one person from the group can be nominated to vote at members’ meetings.

If we are unable to complete the purchase, the Society will return any funds that have been received to purchase shares. However, the Management Committee will endeavour to exhaust every avenue before getting to this point. As the timetable for the process is not within our control, we cannot be definitive about when we might come to this conclusion, but we will communicate developments to members. If the building is not purchased within 12 months of the share offer closing, we will call a meeting of members to get permission to continue to hold the funds.

Donations, made either through our crowdfunding appeal or directly to the Society, are non-refundable as these will be used to pay for irrecoverable expenses such as surveys, fees and professional advice.

We hope that shareholders will want to invest in The Bell for the long term. Shares must be held for a minimum of three years after the Society has commenced trading. After that, shareholders can apply to the Management Committee to withdraw their shares. Under the Society’s rules, all share withdrawals must be funded by trading profits, reserves or new share capital from members. Withdrawals are at the absolute discretion of the Management Committee, having regard to the long-term interests of the Society, the need to maintain prudent reserves, and the Society’s commitment to community benefit.

As explained above, all donations to the Society are non-refundable.

No. Shares in the Society can never be worth more than the nominal value you paid for them. In other words, a £500 shareholding will never be worth more than £500.

If, for whatever reason, the pub is sold (for example, on the open market as a domestic dwelling) the shareholders will not benefit from the extra funds obtained. Any surplus, after repaying shareholders and any associated costs of sale, will go to public benefit or charitable purposes in accordance with our rules. That is the essence of a community benefit society.

It depends. If the business fails, all of its assets, including the freehold of the building, would be sold. After paying any creditors, the remaining proceeds of the sale will be divided between the shareholders according to the size of individual holdings. You may receive the full value of your investment or you may lose part or all of it; this would depend on the state of the property at the point of the failure. The rules for a community benefit society stipulate that you will not receive more than you paid.

No. The structure of a community benefit society means that your liability is limited to the amount of your investment.

None. The share offer is unregulated, as it is exempt from the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 or subsidiary regulations. This means there is no right of complaint to the Financial Ombudsman, nor can you apply to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

We hope so. No interest will be paid on shares for the first 3 years until the Society is fully trading and early remedial work is completed. After that, it is our intention to pay a modest level of interest on shares at a rate proposed by the Management Committee and put to a vote at the annual members’ meeting. Interest is capped at 5%, or 2% above the Bank of England Base rate, whichever is lower. All payments must be based on available funds, including any existing or planned commitments to expenditure. As such, the amount of interest can never be guaranteed. The long-term survival of the pub will always take precedence over payments to shareholders.

Tax relief on social investments ended in 2023. At this stage you are advised to make your investment under the assumption that tax relief will not be available.

We plan to launch our community share offer in autumn 2024, once we have completed all our grant applications. The exact dates will be communicated well in advance, along with details of how to apply.

Before we launch the share offer, we will put a full prospectus, details of our business plan and other information on our website https://bellatiden.com. We will also hold a meeting with the village to explain the share offer in detail and answer any questions.