CEC Director and Company Secretary, Phil Davies
Dear Investor,
As with any investment, I expect you may be feeling a mix of excitement and anxiety about your first investment in Community Energy Cumbria Ltd. It’s a natural response, demanding of you some careful financial consideration. Irrespective of the motivation for your decision and the sum of your investment, you will be playing a vital part in delivering significant social and environmental change within Cumbria and the Lake District.
Recently many people in the UK have voiced their concern over ‘indiscretions’ in the national and global financial sector. Whilst some people are obviously frustrated with what they feel is the slow pace of change, others have been more clearly angered by various scandals. It’s no surprise then that there’s a growing clamour for an alternative, more accountable form of savings investment.
Indeed, the issue of long term ‘security’ is not exclusive to the financial world. We know that continuing high levels of carbon emissions are creating climatic uncertainties sufficient to worry even those historically sceptical about such change. And as we all reap the benefits of global trade, so too do we reflect on losing local jobs and economic activity to far off markets we have little or no control over.
I believe it’s these sorts of reactions and issues that today make Community Energy Cumbria so compelling and attractive a proposition. It’s a chance to become part of a local initiative which connects people with their investment right back here in Cumbria, which rewards our communities and investors with ethical financial, social and environmental benefit whilst simultaneously reducing our dependency on dwindling fossil fuels. It’s a small step, hugely symbolic but also very real. The Board at CEC want you to feel a sense of pride when you invest, a sense of relief that you are doing something about all this, and to leave you with a real feeling of hope for those lucky enough to live, work or visit Cumbria in years to come. Not least for some, the careful financial modelling we have undertaken means CEC expects to pay you an annual share interest averaging 5% per annum over a 20 year period.
By investing, you will be helping to make a fundamental change to the way that our communities in Cumbria can benefit from renewable energy projects. In some ways, it takes us back to the days before the ‘Futures Market’ or ‘selling short,’ days when the profits of local enterprise and of farming would be reinvested in building local homes or in the growth of other local businesses and services. Such investors could walk to where their money was being used; they could touch the stonework, talk to the new employees, or even taste the new crop. In modern times, it’s just bewildering to understand where and how our investments, pensions or savings are being used.
To date, we know that many of the benefits of renewable energy projects in Cumbria ‘leak out’ of Cumbria. Sometimes it’s the profits that disappear out of the county, sometimes it’s simply the lost opportunity of employing local companies to install and maintain the equipment. This needs to change. We are convinced that through the renewable energy projects that CEC will invest in, we can ensure that benefits are kept more locally. Whether it’s an existing reservoir overspill at Killington or the Lake District National Park headquarters, we can start investing in schemes that we can see and get involved in.
I hope that you’ll find this share offer document interesting. Inevitably with anything involving money, there’s quite a lot of dry detail included! We’re not apologising for this. It’s important for CEC’s future sustainability and it’s important for you that you read through the document carefully and take an informed view of the returns you might expect and the risks that you will be taking; as such, don’t be afraid of consulting an independent financial adviser. Also, it may provide you with confidence to visit www.communityenergyengland.org.uk and to see the plethora of similar community energy projects paying interest and working successfully up and down the country.
The best community projects are often the ones hardest fought for. Like many volunteer-led initiatives, CEC is the product of passion, of commitment, of long experience and tenacity. It is also the product of belief and the culmination of a great deal of careful planning by its Directors and the staff at Cumbria Action for Sustainability. As future Members of the Society, we encourage you to take as an active part in its development as you can.
As the Company Secretary, I am proud that at last CEC is ready to launch with these two projects – the hydroelectric power project at Killington Reservoir Overspill and the solar PV array on the headquarters of the Lake District National Park Authority. Please get involved. Be part of the change; don’t just sit and hope that somehow, somewhere, someone makes change happen. It’s up to us in Cumbria and those connected to Cumbria through family, friends or through visiting to make this happen.
Thank you,
Phil Davies
CEC Director and Company Secretary
