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We can help you through the process to develop a scheme which suits the needs of your community or group.

 

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What is community led housing?

Community led housing involves people and communities taking the lead in providing their own housing solutions, creating affordable, sustainable, high quality homes that remain in perpetuity for the community. It helps people develop new skills and knowledge and builds resilient, confident communities.

Community led housing comes in many different forms – there are no standard, off the-shelf approaches, but they can include:

  • Community Land Trusts providing affordable homes for local people in need – for rent or shared ownership – by acquiring land and holding it as a community asset in perpetuity.
  • Housing co-operatives involving groups of people who provide and collectively manage, on a democratic membership basis, affordable homes for themselves as tenants or shared owners.
  • Cohousing schemes involving groups of like-minded people who come together to provide self-contained, private homes for themselves, but manage their scheme together and share activities, often in a communal space.
  • Tenant management organisations providing social housing tenants with collective responsibility for managing and maintaining the homes through an agreement with their council or housing association landlord. You can find out more about the right to manage here.
  • Self-help housing projects involving small, community-based organisations bringing empty properties back into use, often without mainstream funding and with a strong emphasis on construction skills training and support. Here are 3 great examples of self help housing organisations: Latch, Canopy and Giroscope.
  • We interviewed the managing director and an employee from Latch for our podcast series, Communities building homes. You can listen here.
  • Community self-build schemes involving groups of local people in housing need building homes for themselves with external support and managing the process collectively. Individual self-build is not regarded as community led housing. You can find more out more about self and custom build here.

Regardless of which form the project takes, there are three main principles that community led housing adheres to:

  • The community is included in all key decisions and involved throughout the development.
  • The community takes a long-term formal role in the ownership, stewardship or management of the homes.
  • The benefits of the project to the local area and/or community group are clear and legally protected in perpetuity (ie. with no end date).

We can help you through the process to develop a scheme which suits the needs of your community or group.