The Bell Inn Iden Community Limited is a Community Benefit Society (CBS) registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The aim and purpose of the CBS are twofold:
This document outlines a Community Share Offer to raise funds to purchase The Bell at Iden pub and secure its future.
Prospective investors should read the whole text of this document.
As the whole of your investment could carry a risk, please consider it carefully in the context of the complete share offer document and if needed, seek independent advice.
As a long term investment, you should buy these shares only with money you can afford to have tied up, without interest, and without capital appreciation, for several years or more. You should buy shares only with money that you can afford to be without.
This Community Share Offer document should be read in conjunction with our full business plan, financial projections, and Terms and Conditions.
Minimum target: £150,000
Optimum target: £225,000
Maximum target: £425,000
Price per share: £1.00
Minimum investment: £500
Maximum investment: £60,000
Opening date: 22 January 2026
Closing date: 12 February 2026
This offer may end before the closing date if the maximum target is reached earlier. If the minimum target is not reached by the closing date the Management Board reserves the right to extend the offer period if it believes it will help reach the funding total required. The extended date will be no later than 12 March 2026.
A CBS Is a specific legal structure ideally suited to a community purchase. It is a structure that is frequently used as a means to acquire a property for the benefit of a local community. It has the legal protection of limited liability to the value of your shareholding. Our CBS has a set of rules setting out how we operate. Our rules can be read here.
The key feature of a CBS is that it is a legal structure run by the community for the benefit of the community. Any individual over the age of 16 can buy shares in the CBS. These shares are known as Withdrawable community shares. The shares are valued at £1 each. In our CBS we have set a minimum shareholding of 500 shares per individual purchaser. Anybody buying 500 shares or more will automatically become a member of the CBS.
A CBS is by law intended to be a democratic organisation and all members have an equal vote on decisions of the CBS, regardless of their shareholding. A CBS must be run for an explicit community benefit. A CBS has a legal duty to plough any proceeds into its mission,
in line with the objects of the society. Due to its non-profit nature, a community benefit society’s assets must be transferred either to another body with a similar purpose on winding up, or returned to investors. All members can attend annual and special meetings, vote for and stand for election to its Management Board. The Board will work with the tenant to ensure The Bell best serves the interests of the local community.
The Society has elected an interim Management Board, which will serve until the first Annual Members’ Meeting. This will be held as soon as possible after the completion of the purchase. Details of current membership are listed here.
The interim Management Board has negotiated a purchase price for The Bell freehold, goodwill and fixtures and fittings of £425,000. The negotiated price is lower than our independent RICS valuation.
The CBS intends to complete the purchase of The Bell early in 2026. We are extremely fortunate that Iden resident Christopher Strangeways, has offered to contribute £200,000 towards this transaction. As a consequence of his contribution, he will become co-owner of The Bell and has entered into a legal partnership with the CBS.
This leaves the CBS with the target of raising the sum of £225,000 through the sale of community shares, plus a further sum through donations to cover the costs of purchase and Stamp Duty estimated at c £25,000.
The CBS has for some time been in active negotiations with John Rogers, a local publican who has considerable experience of designing, owning, refurbishing and running pubs across the South East of England. John Rogers is the owner of The Globe Inn Rye, and partner in the award-winning pub design company RjR Creative Thinking! See www.rjrcreativethinking.com.
The Management Board has voted to offer John Rogers a full repairing 20 year lease of The Bell at an initial low rent, reflecting his commitment to invest a considerable sum of money into its restoration. It is his intention to carry out a full refurbishment and refit of the pub, aiming for it to reopen for business by the early summer of 2026. His vision is ‘to create a wonderful Country Inn for the residents of Iden and others from further afield.’
The Management Board has voted to give John Rogers an option to purchase the freehold of The Bell from the CBS within the first five years of the lease at our purchase price of £425,000. This price reflects the fact that he will fund the full cost of refurbishment at his own expense.
If for any reason the proposed agreement with John Rogers does not materialise, the CBS will seek an alternative tenant who in exchange for a low initial rent will refit and re-open the pub. We are confident that The Bell, with a very reasonable rent, would be an attractive proposition. If our purchase of the pub does not go ahead, the shareholder funds will be returned in full.
In addition to our Share Offer to raise £225,000 to purchase The Bell, we are also seeking £25,000 in donations to pay our legal and other associated costs.
The offer to the general public to buy community shares in The Bell Inn, and thereby become a member of the CBS will open on 22 January and will run for three weeks. During this period any individual over the age of 16 will be entitled to purchase shares, up to a maximum value of £60,000. Recognising that the minimum share investment may not be affordable to all potential investors, the CBS is offering the option for a group of individuals to ‘club together’ to buy a shareholding. In this situation, group members will nominate one person to be shareholder and represent them at Society meetings. For details of how to make a group purchase please see our Terms and Conditions.
Funds from the share application will be held in a separate account until the share application window closes. If the CBS has not reached its target of £225,000 by the time the application window closes, the Management Board has the discretion to extend the offer window to allow additional time to raise funds. In the unlikely event that the community share offer does not reach its target of £225,000, the CBS has the option to raise the shortfall as a debt with a lender who specialises in community enterprises, such as Cooperative and Community Finance or by applying through the Parish Council for a Public Works Loan.
It is our intention to purchase the building and lease the pub to a competent and experienced publican to refurbish the property and then run the business as landlord. The primary business risk to the CBS would be a failure to secure a suitable tenant for these purposes following purchase of the building. Market conditions could depress the value of the building, even after substantial investment in refurbishment and restoration. In this situation it may take a significant time before shareholder capital can be released.
This share offer is governed by the Cooperatives and Community Benefit Society legislation and is exempt from the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 or subsidiary regulations; this means that you have no right of complaint to an Ombudsman. A Community Benefit Society is registered with, but not authorised by, the Financial Conduct Authority and therefore the money you pay for your shares is not safeguarded by any depositor protection scheme or dispute resolution scheme. As the whole of your investment could carry a risk and you could lose some or all of your investment, please consider it carefully in the context of the complete share offer document and if needed, seek independent advice.
If the share issue raises less than the sum required to proceed with the project, then the CBS will seek to obtain a loan to enable us to purchase The Bell as planned. In the unlikely event that this strategy does not succeed all those who have invested will be reimbursed in entirety and the share issue will be deemed to have failed.
The simplest way to donate or apply for shares is to click one of the buttons below.
While the value of shares can be repaid to a shareholder, a donation cannot be repaid to a donor.
© The Bell Inn Iden Community Limited 2025. All Rights Reserved. By Olli Hopkins