community led housing london

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London CLT secure planning at Brasted Close

London CLT have secured planning for 11 new homes at Brasted Close in Lewisham.

The homes will be for sale, with prices linked to local incomes, with their affordability will be protected in perpetuity through resale price covenants in individual leases.

The scheme will be their first direct development. Following their a ‘Pick an Architect’ event in September 2016, residents chose Archio who have since run collaborative workshops to develop designs for the scheme.

London CLT are now developing their allocations policy to ensure that the new homes will be for members with a local connection and who participate in the local community.

Read more about the project here

 

credit: Archio Ltd.

Launch of Future of London’s CLH learning programme

We were excited to launch ‘Foundations of Community Led Housing’ with Future of London last week at Legal & General’s offices. This learning programme is particularly aimed at local authorities and potential development partners, who want to support community-led schemes to strengthen local networks, promote well-being, deliver social value and cater to the aspirations of a growing number of Londoners.

Opening the session with a keynote presentation, Anna Hope shared examples of successful schemes and reflected on and the integral social value they embody.

Chaired by Stephen Hill, our director, Levent Kerimol, joined a panel discussion on the role of local authorities in creating regular opportunities to move forward from ad-hoc one-off examples.

Assistant Director of Housing Strategy at LB Waltham Forest, Jennifer Daothong, reflected on the borough’s experience of working with community led housing groups. Programme Manager for Housing Diversification at MHCLG, Nigel Kersey, outlined the role of the Community Housing Fund in enhancing the capacity of CLH to become a more regular form of housing delivery.

 

For more information on the programme and notes from the day, visit the Future of London Website

You can also watch all the talks on the Future of London Youtube Channel

 

Practical questions and lively discussion at Community Housing Fund Q&A

Last week we hosted our Community Housing Fund Q&A at Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre and invited community groups, advisers and development partners to put forward practical questions around the prospectus.

The Mayor’s announced of the London Community Housing Fund in January with £38m revenue and capital funding available to community groups looking to develop new homes. We have had significant interest since the launch of the prospectus and the Q&A was a great opportunity to ask specific questions.

Linda Wallace CEO CDS Cooperatives, chairing Q&A

We invited Francesca Lewis, Housing Policy Manager at the GLA, to present the prospectus and join our Project Director Levent Kerimol in answering questions around the funding available.

The fund is split into £30m capital and £8m revenue, to support 500 community led homes starting on site by April 2023. Organisations can apply for funding up to that date or until the funding has been fully committed. We are working alongside the GLA to discuss potential applications with all CLH groups and organisations. So please feel free to get in contact.

We had a great response to our call for questions, with a wide variety from groups and organisations. Linda Wallace, CEO of CDS Co-operatives, chaired an in-depth discussion around the funding as well as on becoming a registered provider.

It was great to have Coin Street Community Builders’ support and hear from Iain Tuckett about their incredible achievements and future plans. Iain shared how building organisational structures and engaging with your local politicians is key in running a successful organisation.

We have collated the questions and answers we received both ahead of the event and on the day, into an FAQ sheet available to download below.

Community Housing Fund FAQ

Community Housing Fund Presentation Slides

£38m Community Housing Fund announced for London

The Community Housing Fund prospectus for London was published today, with £38m available to community housing groups and organisations to deliver successful schemes across the capital until March 2023. This is a significant investment into the sector and can help make community-led housing a consistent part of a diverse London housing market.

We are here to help groups applying to the Community Housing Fund. We can directly fund early stage revenue costs such as feasibility work and development appraisals and will be passing larger applications over to the GLA. All capital funding applications will be managed by the GLA separately.

We’re excited to be working with the GLA to help empower communities and residents to bring forward great projects!

 

Save the Date for CHF Questions

We would like to invite you to our Community Housing Fund afternoon on Friday 15th February, with a chance to talk through the prospectus, and put practical questions to GLA officers. We’ll be in touch with further detail on this in the coming week.

 

Read more

  • you can download the application form for ‘site’ and ‘plan’ stage funding on our support page
  • read more about the fund on the GLA website

Community led housing can deliver quality and density

This week we were at Future of London Leaders’ Alumni breakfast ‘Alternative Housing Delivery Models’ alongside housing associations, developers and local authority officers to share how community led housing can bring about better quality and more affordable homes.

It’s an exciting time for community led housing as the sector has come together around a common definition which has helped to unlock the government support and funding.

Hanover HA forward funded the OWCH scheme ‘New Ground’ Read more

“Perhaps it’s time to rethink housing delivery, opening the market to new, innovative build solutions, putting more control in the hands of communities and delivering housing for all Londoners.”

– Future of London Leaders Alumni

Involving local people and future residents in the development of new homes leads to stronger communities and empowers individuals. In many cases communities can build where others might find it difficult, or can galvanise support for more homes than might otherwise be possible.

Many community led projects have been initiated by grassroots or existing community organisations, however there could be more developers and housing associations initiating projects, and inviting groups to form around projects, to shape and take ownership of them once they are built. We can support both approaches.

Speaking from a local authority perspective, Lewisham’s Housing Strategy Manager, Jeff Endean explained that all approaches should be explored to deliver challenging housing targets. With limited land and resources, local authorities are looking for community-led housing to bring additionality. This will require flexibility and different ways of working among local authorities.

Part of exploring alternative models is to introduce a diverse range of housing options to the market. Naked House was set up by a group of Londoners dissatisfied by over-specified shared-ownership products on offer. Rachel Bagenal explained how financial savings on pared back interior finishes and limited marketing can be passed onto the buyer.

There are plenty of examples of how local authorities can initiate and support community led housing. UCL’s Iqbal Hamiduddin discussed large neighbourhoods in Europe delivered by a series of self-build groups. Clearer planning requirements, and setting a fixed price for each site drove quality, and reduced the risks that discourage people in the UK.

 

 
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