community led housing london

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CLH Exchange kicks off with great projects and supportive developers

Last Thursday was our first CLH Exchange, an evening of quick-fire talks from London’s community led housing network. Each speaker had six minutes to introduce themselves to the room which left plenty of time for people to catch up, and exchange ideas.

In the first half we heard from CLH organisations who have made significant progress with their visions for affordable community housing.

Lianna shared how London CLT have successfully campaigned for affordable housing across the capital and completed their first project at St. Clements.

Simon from Naked House explained how the non-for-profit company are developing genuinely affordable houses in Enfield by using simple construction methods and paired back interiors on discounted land.

Founding member of RUSS, Kareem, shared how Walter Segal’s self-build housing informed the organisation’s values of construction training, sustainability and affordability.

For the second half, we invited development managers to share their experiences of community led housing and how they can work in partnership with groups to bring forward projects.

Anthony explained how Bioregional work with communities to develop sustainable homes and shared their project with Chobham CIC.

Kym shared some great anecdotes from residents of the Kipling Estate. Igloo Community Builders‘ recently partnered with Leathermarket CBS to build 27 council rent homes at Marklake Court.

Emma from Bringelly has a lot of experience in community led housing and can work with groups to focus on land negotiations, community engagement, advocacy, fundraising and to secure planning permission.

It was great to see familiar faces and meet new people, if you would like to know about any of our future events, sign up to our mailing list.

Exploring CLH options with London’s advisors

Last week we hosted community led housing advisers, consultants working in the sector and some early stage groups to the first session of a wider accreditation programme to be launched later this year. Aimed at community led housing advisers, this session presented all the options available to CLH groups from financial, development and land ownership options to legal structures and long term management considerations. With planners, architects, surveyors, development managers and early stage groups in the room, there was great discussion around definitions and routes to delivery.

With the main national bodies for community-led housing coming together around a common definition, it’s important that groups define their objectives and choose a legal and organisational structure that suits their situation. Together we looked at examples of early stage CLH groups and thought about the questions that needed to be asked, the options available to them what advice we might give. It was great doing this with people from different disciplines and sharing knowledge and experience with others across the room.

The accreditation programme has been prepared by the Confederation of Cooperative Housing in alliance with UK Cohousing Network, National CLT Network, and Locality with funding from Power to Change and the Nationwide Foundation. After being piloted nationwide this summer, the full programme is expected to be launched later this year.

Updates on it’s launch can be found here

 

What to see at Open House

It’s Open House this weekend and there are some great community led housing projects opening their doors to the public.  As the world’s largest architecture festival, over 800 buildings will be open as well as walks, talks and tours. Here are our choices for the weekend:

Marklake Court
September 22 – 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
A new community-led development of council rent homes shows how allowing residents to take a lead can provide new housing on existing estates and result in positive outcomes for all. Supported by igloo Community Builders, Leathermarket Community Benefit Society (CBS) identified an underused garage site on the Kipling Estate, Southwark and have developed 27 affordable homes. The project was designed by Bell Phillips Architects who worked closely with Leathermarket CBS from the outset to co-develop proposals.
Find out more

Hazelhurst Court
Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th  – book a tour for 4:00 pm
An award-winning development by Phoenix Community Housing of 60 extra care apartments for older people. With funding from the Mayor of London and Lewisham Council, the homes are for affordable rent and built next to Phoenix’s existing properties. Phoenix Community Housing is a not-for-profit resident-led housing association based in South London. They own and manage more than 6,000 homes in Lewisham and are now starting to build their first new homes.
Find out more

Walter Segal Self Build Homes
Sunday 23rd September – 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
A close of thirteen self-build homes in Lewisham by architect Walter Segal. This council-run housing scheme was the first of it’s kind in the UK and saw a group of residents build their own homes on a derelict site in Lewisham. Open house is a great opportunity to look around the homes and there will be a short documentary viewing.
Find out more

Groups we’re supporting

We had a great response to our first call for Advice and Feasibility fund applications from community groups across London. The applications went to our panel and we’re pleased to announce we have awarded the first round of funding to three groups.

  • We’re supporting Featherstone Cohousing in their bid to purchase Featherstone Lodge in Forest Hill. They are currently in negotiation to buy the large lodge to convert it into a cohousing development of 10 flats for the 22 members of their group.
  • We’re supporting Sanford Housing Co-op to expand and build new housing on their own site at Sandford Walk and look into potential sites nearby. Sanford are the UK’s oldest purpose built coop. Along Sanford Walk in Lewisham there are 14 houses with 8-10 residents in each; members are allocated a bedroom and share a kitchen and living space. There are also 6 self-contained flats.
  • We’re supporting Forest CLT who are a group of individuals and families looking to develop affordable housing in Waltham Forest and grow their membership.

Our team of advisers will be working with London Older Lesbian Cohousing, Arcadia Co-housing and a new emerging group in Kentish Town, to help facilitate thinking around their organisation structures and their next steps.