This ‘one-of-a-kind’ charity shop offers tools to fix the housing crisis: ‘It’s a charity B&Q’

A unique new charity shop has opened its doors, shunning second-hand DVDs and vintage clothes to take aim at the housing crisis.

The ReStore charity shop opened its doors in Romford, East London, at the end of November, offering tools, nuts and bolts and other DIY essentials alongside tips, tricks and training to help people fix up their homes.

The idea is the brainchild of social enterprise Habitat for Humanity Great Britain (HFHGB), who said the store aims to act as a “charity B&Q”.

“We often talk about innovation and uniqueness and all of these things, but this is genuinely something new to Great Britain,” said Henrietta Blackmore, national director of Habitat for Humanity Great Britain.

“What they do is something that, we think, will really add value to charity retail space. The sort of tagline is that it’s like a ‘charity B&Q’ – it’s a home improvement retail store. We’ve been building up really good networks with other charity retailers because we think we can take things that they don’t normally sell and aren’t able to accept as donations.

“How do you create an affordable retail space for anybody where, whatever their level of need is, someone can come in and find all of the items that they need? And potentially also the support and community knowledge and networks as well to really make sure that the space that they’re calling home is as clean, safe and comfortable as it possibly can be?”

The ReStore, which was launched by charity patron the Duke of Gloucester on 29 November, is new to Romford and Great Britain but has become a fixture of the wider Habitat for Humanity’s network around the globe.

There are around 1,200 ReStores across the globe, according to Blackmore, with the bulk in the US and a handful in Ireland.

Shoppers will be able to find new and used renovation materials, white good, kitchens and building materials in the charity shop with all sales helping to fund Habitat for Humanity GB’s housing projects, delivering affordable housing and repairs for families in need.

Funded by the People’ Postcode Lottery, the new store has seen the charity reach out to members of the building trade and even the film industry to secure used and leftover materials and tools that would otherwise be set for landfill.

There are plans in the future to carry out outreach work to support vulnerable women in the community with repairs to their home.

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It’s taken a year to find a site for the first store – a sign of the times on the high street with landlords wary of the charitable venture – but now the charity is already on the lookout for a second location in a bid to create a chain of social enterprises across Britain.

“The multi-faceted nature of the housing crisis is so extreme that finding a specific way to help people benefit from this kind of intervention just felt like a real value add,” Blackmore told the Big Issue.

“In the context of the wider housing crisis, we know that we can’t possibly address every aspect of the crisis ourselves and we certainly wouldn’t even want to claim that we’re addressing this aspect by ourselves. 

“But we did really identify, through our existing community engagement work, that this was something that would make a difference and that’s why now.”

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