community led housing london

Hackney

London Older Lesbian Cohousing

LOLC are working on a mutually supportive mixed-tenure cohousing project in north-east London, future proofing the homes for their changing needs. Stonewall’s ‘Building Safe Choices’ report found older LGBT people are more likely to be single, live alone and rely on external services due to lack of informal support. The culture of retirement and sheltered homes can be isolating and LOLC intend to create an inclusive and safe space, contributing to innovative approaches to ageing.

The group are working in partnership with a large Housing Association to build around 20 units of which 25-30% will be affordably rented, with the remainder available under the Older People’s Shared Ownership scheme or bought outright.

The co-founders met to research and develop the idea before holding their first public meeting in April 2016. There are currently 19 members, who pay a £10 monthly contribution for travel, printing and room hire costs. LOLC are a Company Limited by Guarantee in which all full members are directors with voting rights. New members go through a joining process before becoming a full member. Decisions are made by consensus and the roles of Chair and Secretary are rotated, while the Treasurer is a fixed role.

How we’re helping
LOLC attended our launch event in 2017 where they met housing associations, social investors and architects. They worked with our associate adviser Maria Brenton to engage potential partners and developed a positive relationship with L&Q around a site in Waltham Forest. We have since supported their dialogues with L&Q as landowner and enabling developer, and Womens Pioneer HA as landlord of the affordable homes.

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Arcadia Cohousing

Arcadia are looking to build affordable, inter-generational housing in East London. As a group, they met through church, and have visited other community led housing projects and attended various workshops to establish their vision and values.

They hope to have shared spaces such as a kitchen and garden where residents can socialise, in addition to their own personal living space. They are looking to incorporate provision for the elderly and/or disabled in their scheme, and work on bringing the wider community in, living out the Christian principle “love your neighbour as yourself”.

They are looking to build 5-10 submarket leasehold homes. It is anticipated individual leases will have a resale price covenant imposed through a sec 106, to protect any affordability in the homes in perpetuity

How we’re helping
We have supported Arcadia to incorporate as a Community Interest Company, think through their objects and open a bank account. Households will be directors of the company working with participatory decision making. We also helped them commission financial modelling, and prepare proposals to redevelop a church site in Tower Hamlets.

 
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Copper Lane Cohousing

London’s first cohousing project shows how sharing some spaces supports community life and makes the houses more compact.

 

Number of homes 6 market value homes
Location Stoke Newington
Project Stage Built 2014

How they formed
The residents came together to do things collectively, sharing things such as gardens and laundry and workshop facilities.

The founding members of the group formed a non-profit company limited by guarantee. The site and common parts are owned by the company. Individual homes are owned on 999-year leases by leaseholders who are also directors of the company. They meet once a month to sort out collective business.

Site
The site had an abandoned set of buildings formerly used as a nursery, surrounded by the backs of terraced houses on all sides. Three of the current residents who lived nearby, spotted the site for sale without planning permission and bought the site together.

Finance
The group sold their homes to finance the purchase of the land and moved into rented accommodation. Once planning permission was secured, they were able to obtain individual mortgages from Ecology Building Society.

Design and Construction
Clustered around a raised central courtyard with a communal space beneath, five of the six houses have internal doors to a shared laundry, workshop and hall which saves space in individual houses and encourages a neighbourly community, surrounded by communal gardens.

The scheme was designed by Henley Halebrown. The homes are sunk 1.2 metres into the ground meaning they do not overshadow neighbouring houses. The orientation of buildings and placement of windows also minimise overlooking.

Trees on the site were kept where possible and high-grade timber and brick cladding were used to blend in with the vegetation and surrounding back gardens. High levels of energy efficiency are achieved with a well-insulated structure, triple glazing, heat recovery ventilation, solar thermal water heating and airtight construction techniques.

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