How will the Mayday Saxonvale Plan be funded?
Mayday Saxonvale is a not-for-profit social enterprise incorporated as a company limited by guarantee, with the sole objective of developing the Saxonvale site for the social, community, and economic benefit of Frome.
A Joint Venture Company
Mayday Saxonvale and Stories would form a joint venture company for the development of the Saxonvale site, fully aligned on maximising social value.
Stories are a socially responsible property development company that delivers residential-led mixed use projects that enable maximum social value. They are a pending Benefit Corporation (B-Corp) and are regulated by RICS.
Mayday provides the local knowledge and community understanding and are the long term custodians of the community assets and public realm of the development. Stories provide the expertise required to deliver a scheme of this scale and would be engaged by the joint venture as the master developer of the site, alongside arranging the necessary financing.
Maximising social value or ‘social profit’
Whilst external capital will be used where necessary, the overriding objective of the joint venture will be to maximise social value or ‘social profit’. This approach fundamentally alters the viability equation, enabling the Mayday plan to deliver more commercial space, higher levels of affordable housing, and a variety of community assets.
This would be the first community led development at a masterplan scale in the UK.
Mayday Community Asset Model
Mayday Saxonvale has a long-term vision for Saxonvale, whereby the area continues to deliver for the community of Frome for generations to come. At the forefront of this vision is the delivery of specific buildings, and the wider public realm, of the area into the ownership of the community in perpetuity.
These assets will be places where the priorities of the community can play out, whether, in terms of arts, culture, supporting local commercial and social enterprises, education, or whatever use is of social value in the future. In time, where these assets return a profit, these will be fed back into delivering further social value in Saxonvale and Frome. If allowed to proceed, this model could provide an innovative new template for development in the Mendip region.
The joint venture of Mayday Saxonvale and Stories will deliver residential and commercial aspects of the Saxonvale development. A share of the profit from this development will be allocated to Mayday Saxonvale as the base equity with which, alongside associated debt financing, to fund the development of the community assets.
All community assets will then be owned by Mayday Saxonvale, which is a not for profit social enterprise. Should these assets return a profit to Mayday Saxonvale, then such profits can only be used to enhance the community offering of Mayday Saxonvale or to invest in other areas of social value in Frome.
The Mayday Model
Community led development provides a new model – the “Mayday Model”
This model could pave the way for genuine community-led development across the UK.
This social enterprise model is set to become a transferable workable template to other towns facing exploitative development on key employment or mixed-use sites. This community-led development has never been done in the UK in a masterplanning context – it’s totally new and Frome could lead the way and initiate a tidal change towards civic improvement in UK communities