LCG members 2016

Low Carbon Gordano membership survey 2016

You will all be aware of the many changes that have been made by the government in the months since out last share offer. These, combined with other background factors mean that we need to adapt if Low Carbon Gordano is going to continue to grow and prosper. These include:

a huge reduction in the Feed-in-Tariff support for solar projects, especially ground-mounted ones like Moorhouse and Ham Farm. (Note: these schemes are not affected by this as the changes are not retrospective.)

the removal of EIS (or its successor SITR) tax relief from community owned energy projects.

The world-wide collapse in energy prices, which has reduced the price we can sell our electricity for.

An ongoing period of low inflation which has affected our expectations of future income.

Fortunately, none of these changes threaten the basic soundness of our existing projects, although continued low inflation and electricity prices may mean we need to consider the level of interest paid to investors.

All of this means that we are currently engaged in a thorough going review of our approach to the further growth of the society and are looking at a range of investment possibilities for the next 1-3 years. We believe that it is important to us to continue to grow at a sensible rate both to bring more renewable energy into community ownership, to make more money available for community benefit, and to be more sustainable in the long term. It would also make more electricity available for domestic users through Mongoose Energy Ltd.

It would be extremely helpful to this process if you would complete the survey of members' views – it should take no more than 10 or so minutes. We apologise that a few of the questions cover the same issues that were included in the survey many of you helpfully completed for Bath University recently but these are needed for completeness and will help us build on the information provided by the earlier survey.

We are offering a prize of £50 to one lucky person who completes the survey – we will choose the name randomly at our board meeting on 26 May so make sure you respond before then.

Question Title

* 1. What were the most important factors influencing your decision to invest in LCG?

	not important	slightly important	quite important	very important
Supporting development of renewable energy projects	Supporting development of renewable energy projects not important	Supporting development of renewable energy projects slightly important	Supporting development of renewable energy projects quite important	Supporting development of renewable energy projects very important
Supporting the development of community owned renewable energy projects	Supporting the development of community owned renewable energy projects not important	Supporting the development of community owned renewable energy projects slightly important	Supporting the development of community owned renewable energy projects quite important	Supporting the development of community owned renewable energy projects very important
Supporting renewable energy projects with wildlife and biodiversity benefits	Supporting renewable energy projects with wildlife and biodiversity benefits not important	Supporting renewable energy projects with wildlife and biodiversity benefits slightly important	Supporting renewable energy projects with wildlife and biodiversity benefits quite important	Supporting renewable energy projects with wildlife and biodiversity benefits very important
Investing in a local community enterprise	Investing in a local community enterprise not important	Investing in a local community enterprise slightly important	Investing in a local community enterprise quite important	Investing in a local community enterprise very important
Securing a reasonable financial return	Securing a reasonable financial return not important	Securing a reasonable financial return slightly important	Securing a reasonable financial return quite important	Securing a reasonable financial return very important
Securing EIS tax relief	Securing EIS tax relief not important	Securing EIS tax relief slightly important	Securing EIS tax relief quite important	Securing EIS tax relief very important
Securing other tax benefits (inheritance tax relief, capital gains tax relief)	Securing other tax benefits (inheritance tax relief, capital gains tax relief) not important	Securing other tax benefits (inheritance tax relief, capital gains tax relief) slightly important	Securing other tax benefits (inheritance tax relief, capital gains tax relief) quite important	Securing other tax benefits (inheritance tax relief, capital gains tax relief) very important

Other (please specify)

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* 2. How many times have you invested in LCG?

Once

Twice

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* 3. How much have you invested in total?

£500-£2500

£2501-£10,000

£10,001-£20,000

£20,001-£40,000

£40,001-£70,000

£70,001-£100,000

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* 4. How did you first find out about the share offers that you invested in?

LCG website

LCG newsletter

Other Community Energy group newsletter

Other Community Energy group website

The Ethex investment platform

Leaflet

Public meeting

Facebook

Twitter

Word of mouth, friends, family, colleagues etc

Local paper

Radio

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 5. How likely would you be to invest in a future LCG project (assuming that you thought the project to be sound) if the expected financial returns were as follows?
(Please note, as with existing projects, returns are not guaranteed but are dependent on
performance. Your responses to this question will help us decide whether future possible projects are worth our active consideration.)

	Very unlikely to invest	Probably would not invest	Quite likely to invest	Very likely to invest
Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 6-7%	Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 6-7% Very unlikely to invest	Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 6-7% Probably would not invest	Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 6-7% Quite likely to invest	Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 6-7% Very likely to invest
Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 5%	Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 5% Very unlikely to invest	Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 5% Probably would not invest	Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 5% Quite likely to invest	Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 5% Very likely to invest
Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 3-4% above annual RPI	Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 3-4% above annual RPI Very unlikely to invest	Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 3-4% above annual RPI Probably would not invest	Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 3-4% above annual RPI Quite likely to invest	Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 3-4% above annual RPI Very likely to invest
Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 2-3% above annual RPI	Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 2-3% above annual RPI Very unlikely to invest	Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 2-3% above annual RPI Probably would not invest	Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 2-3% above annual RPI Quite likely to invest	Non-transferable Shares (repayable at cost over 20 years) offering 2-3% above annual RPI Very likely to invest
Bonds repayable in 3-5 years offering 4-5% annual return	Bonds repayable in 3-5 years offering 4-5% annual return Very unlikely to invest	Bonds repayable in 3-5 years offering 4-5% annual return Probably would not invest	Bonds repayable in 3-5 years offering 4-5% annual return Quite likely to invest	Bonds repayable in 3-5 years offering 4-5% annual return Very likely to invest
Bonds repayable in 10 years offering 4-5% annual return	Bonds repayable in 10 years offering 4-5% annual return Very unlikely to invest	Bonds repayable in 10 years offering 4-5% annual return Probably would not invest	Bonds repayable in 10 years offering 4-5% annual return Quite likely to invest	Bonds repayable in 10 years offering 4-5% annual return Very likely to invest

If you have any further comments about your views on the financial returns of our projects, please tell us in the box below:

Question Title

* 6. What has been your experience of being a member of LCG so far? Please select the statement that most closely reflects your experience of each option.

	Consistently poor	Often poor	Often good	Consistently good	No experience
Members' meetings, including AGMs	Members' meetings, including AGMs Consistently poor	Members' meetings, including AGMs Often poor	Members' meetings, including AGMs Often good	Members' meetings, including AGMs Consistently good	Members' meetings, including AGMs No experience
Emailed newsletters	Emailed newsletters Consistently poor	Emailed newsletters Often poor	Emailed newsletters Often good	Emailed newsletters Consistently good	Emailed newsletters No experience
LCG website	LCG website Consistently poor	LCG website Often poor	LCG website Often good	LCG website Consistently good	LCG website No experience
General administration of e.g. share certificates, meeting invitations, interest payments	General administration of e.g. share certificates, meeting invitations, interest payments Consistently poor	General administration of e.g. share certificates, meeting invitations, interest payments Often poor	General administration of e.g. share certificates, meeting invitations, interest payments Often good	General administration of e.g. share certificates, meeting invitations, interest payments Consistently good	General administration of e.g. share certificates, meeting invitations, interest payments No experience
Other communications	Other communications Consistently poor	Other communications Often poor	Other communications Often good	Other communications Consistently good	Other communications No experience

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* 7. What is your view of the amount of communication you receive from LCG?

There's too much of it

It's about right

There's not enough – I'd like more regular updates

If you said that there was too much or not enough please tell us what you would like us to do differently.