Blog – A New Year and A New Partner
January 2021
Mike Lowe, one of the MSP directors, reflects on the 2020 share offer and the organisation’s ambitious and exciting plans moving forward.
Despite the many unknowns at the peak of the first pandemic lockdown, Mustard Seed Property (MSP) launched its 2020 community share offer. We had no idea of the level of support we would see for our share offer, at such a difficult time for everyone and with so many needs in society being starkly revealed as the COVID-19 crisis developed. So we were absolutely delighted and blown away at the overwhelming response when over 130 new investors joined MSP, enabling us to raise our full target of £600,000. This new injection of investment, has doubled our capital base taking it to just in excess of £1.2m. With some modest borrowing, MSP should now be able to build a property portfolio close to £2m, bringing us closer to our vision of providing more of the much needed accommodation for some of the most vulnerable in society.
As you may know, this current scheme is for the provision of co-living accommodation in Redruth for six individuals, supported by our partner Karrek Community CIC. MSP purchased the property in April and since then, our design team has been working hard to adapt the building to Karrek’s customised needs. In October our planning application was approved.
With the recent addition of our newest partner Newquay Lighthouse Project CIC (NLP), MSP can build on our plan to grow the portfolio of supported accommodation even further. We are now exploring the purchase of a property on behalf of NLP – providing supported accommodation for adults seeking rehabilitation in Cornwall.
Our ambition is to establish housing tailored to the needs of vulnerable people in at least six of the larger towns in Cornwall. With continued successful fundraising, we aim to have at least six properties up and running by 2025, working with at least four different partners, all of them focused on prioritising the more vulnerable in our community, and giving them the space they need to really flourish. With the full subscription of our community share offer in 2020, we have already been in touch with our existing partners and are going to explore their ambitions for expansion, in a year that has seen demand for their services increase significantly.
I asked Adam Langer of Newquay Lighthouse Project CIC to give his thoughts on the new partnership with MSP and he said: “These are strange times of huge change, but supporting our communities gives meaning and hope to everyone. It feels so wonderful to see positive investment in something I believe will lead to real change for people. I feel so grateful that Newquay Lighthouse Project is becoming part of what Mustard Seed Property started.”