Examples of Councils and Crowdfunding:

1. Swindon Borough Council, 2016 Launched the first Council Solar Bond in 2016 in partnership with Crowdfunding Platform in order to support their vision to develop a low carbon economy by 2030. The Council invested £3million and crowdfunded circa £1.78 million from investors, including Swindon residents. The solar farm is now generating renewable electricity which earns revenues from the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) and Export Tariff, creating a long term income for the Council, investors and defined community initiatives. (It is important to note that the FiT recently ended, so the Swindon scheme would be modelled differently in the current post-subsidy context).

Status: Completed project. Sufficient funds raised at lower borrowing rate than PWLB. Community engagement achieved. Project in line with corporate priority.

2. West Berkshire Council, 2020 Partnering with Crowdfunding Platform to generate a £1million Community Municipal Bond that will finance projects that align with the Council’s Climate Emergency Declaration and its Environmental Strategy. Project examples include solar panels, natural carbon reduction measures and an urban tree fund. In return for supporting the council's aims to become carbon neutral by 2030, investors will receive a long term, low risk return.

Status: The Community Municipal Bond was approved by the Council in April 2020 based on the lower borrowing cost of the Community Municipal Bond in comparison to the PWLB. The Council hope to launch the scheme to investors in the coming weeks after social distancing restrictions are relaxed.

3. Warrington Borough Council, 2020 The Council is planning to give the public the opportunity to invest in a solar farm through a Community Municipal Bond, in partnership with Crowdfunding Platform. The aim is to finance a project that will generate renewable energy that can be sold back into the grid and provided to the Council through a power purchase agreement. The Council also intend to use this energy to electrify their bus fleet. The Community Municipal Bond would be issued to residents and investors, who will receive a percentage return on their capital investment.

Status: The scheme is yet to begin, but was approved by Cabinet at their meeting on 27 May 2020. MDC will be meeting with Crowdfunding Platform and the research team at the University of Leeds later this year to better understand how the Community Municipal Bond has worked in this project.