How communities can shape their own future – Lessons for York Central

On Sunday 17 June, Community Led Homes North Yorkshire & East Riding was involved in a panel as part of the Radix Big Tent Ideas Festival. The panel, which explored the ambition of community groups and discussed how communities can take bold steps to shape neighbourhoods and economies through the power of participation, was facilitated by Phil Bixby from YoCo and included as speakers:

• Greg Dyke, Chair, York Central Strategic Board
• Jimm Reed, Leeds Community Homes
• Josh Coates, Homebaked
• Sarah Hart from Community-led Homes North Yorkshire & East Riding.

Sarah opened up by exploring economic models and noted that currently there are not many lenders for community-led housing. Sarah advocated a collaborative approach that is in everyone’s interests: “We need to work with all key stakeholders but the key is to ensure communities are enabled and play a defining role – turning NIMBY’s into YIMBY’s – and working through an economic model that works for everyone”.

You can read more about the panel discussion in this YoCo blog.