Outlandish co-op member Natasha Natarajan recently joined the Coworking Values Podcast to discuss how co-operatives can drive a local economy, and specifically the social value created by SPACE4, the co-working space set up and run by us.
The headline number is striking: £2.5m+ in social value delivered to Islington Council to date via SPACE4. That’s not a vanity metric—it’s years of hard work, creative thinking and infrastructure improvements measured and reported through the council’s framework.
In the podcast, Natasha sums it up: “We don’t pay rent to the council, but we pay them in social value… To date, we’ve provided £2.5 million to Islington Council…”
Measuring that value isn’t always simple. Much of what makes a community resilient happens between the lines—introductions that turn into contracts, Wednesday lunches that reduce isolation, skills swapped over coffee.
As Natasha notes of the TOMs framework used by councils, “It basically assigns monetary value to particular things… it’s very difficult for us to capture everything.” Even so, tracking what we can—and being transparent about the rest—has helped make the case for public-interest workspaces.
SPACE4’s culture is intentional. Decision-making is in the hands of the people who run the space and use it every day.
As Natasha puts it, “We have complete independence and control over what we do here.” That autonomy lets us focus on the real outcomes: people finding work, learning together, and building organisations that stick around.
Communal eating
Community lunch on Wednesdays is a tiny example that carries outsized weight. “Even if you don’t sign up for the actual food, people come just to sit together,” Natasha explains. It’s a ritual that lowers barriers, sparks collaboration, and—quietly—creates the conditions for new co-ops, campaigns, and careers.
That connectivity shows up in practical ways too.
Our partnership with Founders and Coders brings new developers into the room; monthly, structured networking feeds freelancers with work; and an active jobs channel keeps opportunities circulating. None of this is flashy. It’s the everyday plumbing of economic democracy: shared space, shared knowledge, shared ownership.
Why does this model matter?
Because it aligns the incentives of place, people and production. A worker-owned tech co-op running an affordable workspace, accountable to its community and measuring what it gives back, is a small but sturdy counterweight to extractive economies.
When councils partner with local, mission-driven organisations and measure outcomes—not just occupancy—good things multiply. And when residents can start businesses, learn new skills, and meet collaborators without leaving the neighbourhood, prosperity sticks.
About SPACE4
SPACE4 is part of Outlandish, a worker-owned tech co-operative. We run an affordable workspace in Finsbury Park that activates our local community through affordable desks, training, and public events, with a focus on progressive, co-operative tech.
Since opening in 2017, we’ve hosted a wide range of organisations (including Founders and Coders as an anchor tenant) and continued to partner with Islington on community wealth-building.
If you’re a council, anchor institution, or community group interested in practical routes to economic democracy, talk to us. We’re happy to share what we’ve learned about measuring social value, stewarding community spaces, and building models that put people before profit