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READY to BUILD uses publicly available government repositories to find the correct inputs for a range of sustainable property modification calculations.  As we are a C.I.C we are licenced to databases under the Open Government Licence as well as many individual licences with The Ministry Of Housing.  There are rules enforced on us by the OGL and the CIC regulator. Furthermore we must comply with GDPR too.

We spent 18 months negotiating credit limits with government departments. Some of the departments allow VAR (Value Added Reselling) on a commercial licence but not only are these licences prohibitively expensive -  our Online Surveying Tools are dependent on all API’s from all departments many of which only allow the data banks to be used for non-commercial research purposes only.

·         Each PIP (Property Intelligence Publication) does not contain telephones, mobile and emails or even names. The PIP is about the house and house only. There is a small chance that the person that logged the data has moved out or was only interested in buying that house and does not live there.  This is compliant with GDPR

·         The non-commercial licences mean that we are unable to licence the app suite to any builders or tradespeople as the API that our app depends on these keys are for our use only. If you are an electrician for example and would like a Solar Generation Calculator on your own website we as a company cannot do it and you must reach out to one of the developers who will build it for you using your own licence. Many departmental API’s are not yet finished and many more have no commercial licence yet but we can advice you further on this ever changing matter. We estimate that a commercial licence to all the keys may cost up to £16,000 once all departments in Whitehall finish their API - so we advise you to set up your own community interest company, file requests for non-commercial use and host the  tool.

·         We are unable to charge a ‘pay as you go’ model: sublicensing is prohibited and our app suite and any app suite we make that is enabled by departmental API must always be free of charge: this essentially forces us to act though a community interest company only.

·         We are permitted to charge for the output of the data as long as it is new data rather than just bundles of raw data. Certain tools are called “Checkers” – Flood Risk Checker and Floor Area Checker, the PIP does not contain raw data like this and these checker tools are just included as a free non-profit way of putting many search facilities on one website/app.

·         We are permitted to charge a subscription fee to a publication and this method of monetisation is common for many C.I.Cs – you should be warned that many C.I.Cs ‘masquerade as charities’ with street side campaigns for ending knife crime or helping veterans and often magazine subscribers are lead to believe they are making monthly donations. We indeed do raise awareness of roofs that are perfect for solar panels and houses that are in much need of insulation but are not a charity but a legal community interest data broker.

·         The C.I.C regulator enforces us to charge fees at an affordable and accessible rate. If you are a tradesperson and you have only recently gone it alone we charge a £25 a quarter for your first year of trading, and  £400 a year after that and those who subscribe for more than a year become members shareholders in READY to BUILD c.i.c – informally known as “co-op”.

o   One time only access to PIP is £100. All data is timestamped so you know when that member of the household expressed an interest in solar panels for example. All historical data is always included and this one time only service is available so you can understand that the leads are fresh and genuine.

·         The C.I.C model allows us to have voting members that attend AGMs (Annual General Meetings). Subscribers are classed as volunteers and members and are no different to shareholders:  All members of the co-op vote in trades people by popular vote and vote out tradespeople by popular vote. The articles of association allows existing members to be classed as ‘bad leavers’  and the existing members will take back their share. There is no annual fee for PIP it is published to all members for free, but it costs one share to join. Currently that share is £400 but increases when more members join and everyone agrees for the share to increase. Each quarter the publication of PIP is legally a funding round.  

o   The co-op is as it sounds. The intent is to prohibit bad actors and rouge traders from using the postcode house number combos in PIP to aggressively or deceptively market their trade – and when poor workmanship is done to an inadequate standard the co-op can revoke membership. This makes sure that site visitors and app users trust that that the tradespeople that reach out to them offering insulation installation for example act in utmost good faith.  

·         PIP (Property Intelligence Publication) is always a read only published map and excel and google docs spreadsheet with pins in it that denote the postcode and the house number and a unique index code. It is intended that you use this of flyering  of polite and informed letters to your local community. 4

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