The People’s Property Portfolio (PPP) is giving people the opportunity to have a stake and a say in how local buildings are brought back into community control.
Through a Community Share Offer campaign, people can buy social investment shares (from £50) to help PPP raise vital funds to restore and renovate 17-21 Chapel Street, a Grade II listed building in the heart of Bradford’s Little Germany Conservation Area.
PPP is a Bradford-based co-operative, operated by a voluntary board as a Community Benefit Society, which means members get a say in how the co-operative is run as well as a stake in the buildings it acquires. PPP was founded by a group of Bradfordians with the aim of bringing land and buildings back into long-term community ownership and use, and borne out of seeing community groups and artists forced out of spaces by absent landlords or property developers.
Members of the PPP board were instrumental in bringing a former warehouse into use as the multi-storey arts space Loading Bay during Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, which welcomed over 40,000 through its doors in the year, and have experience in transforming disused spaces into something creative, vital and inspiring.
In November 2025, PPP acquired the property at 17-21 Chapel Street. The building started life as a Quaker School and was, more recently, the home of the Bradford Resource Centre – a home for grassroots arts, activism and social connection. While the building has since fallen into disrepair, PPP plans to revitalise it with the same spirit and energy as before.
Planning permission was granted by Bradford Council in January 2026 for the building to become an affordable multi-use workspace for artists, cultural organisations and community groups. As well as additional accessibility and sustainability features, the building will also include an event space that the public will be able to enjoy.
With plans approved, PPP now is pressing ahead with fundraising plans for the refurbishment. PPP has already successfully raised funds from Bradford Culture Company, the Architectural Heritage Fund and Co-operatives UK and is in conversation with a number of other funders. The Community Share Offer will be one part of the package of investment used to redevelop and reopen this space and support the growth of the organisation. The Share Offer campaign has been accredited with the Co-operatives UK Community Shares standard mark and people can get involved for as little as £50.
Community shares are a way for people to invest in organisations that serve a community purpose. They are withdrawable shares that cannot be sold, traded or transferred, unlike shares in a typical company. By investing, people will become a member and a co-owner of PPP. As well as supporting PPP to renovate 17-21 Chapel Street, shareholders will become a voting member, with one vote on PPP matters regardless of how many shares are held.
PPP’s ambitions go beyond one building. If 17-21 Chapel Street is a success, the co-operative hopes to replicate the model with other buildings and spaces. Investment via community shares will lay the foundations for a long-term community-owned portfolio of buildings that will keep essential cultural and community spaces open, affordable and protected for future generations.
Speaking about the Share Offer campaign, Chair of PPP, Harry Jelley said:
“PPP’s ambition is to create spaces that belong to everyone, so that local people can control our own future. We don’t want a city centre determined for us by greedy developers or rogue landlords who don’t care about how Bradford works for the people – just the future commercial value of their properties.
“For too long, we have seen artists forced out of the temporary spaces that they have improved by landlords that want to profit from their efforts. We also regularly see community organisations priced out of the rental market. We’re asking for investment from local people, and supporters from beyond Bradford, who care about a democratic vision for our city, keeping the doors of this heritage building open, and who want to come together to do good things.
PPP can make the dream of community-owned buildings, right here, a reality. Bradford’s year as 2025 UK City of Culture cemented our drive to make special things happen in our city and we want to build on that, with the ambition and talent here in our district.”
The first stage of the Community Share Offer will run until 16 April 2026.
For more information on Community Shares and the specific details of the PPP Share Offer visit peoplespropertyportfolio.co.uk/invest.
