community led housing london

Tower Hamlets

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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Cable Street

London CLT secured the site through the GLA’s Small Sites Small Builders programme, to deliver affordable homes linked to local incomes, following local organising and membership building around the site.

The local group drew up a brief together, with a vision for the site, and used this to tender for an architect. Nearly fifty people cast their vote for one of four shortlisted architects they wanted to work with to design the homes.

How we’re helping
We supported legal work to finalise a funding agreement with the Greater London Authority.

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Squeezed London

Squeezed London are a diverse group of “squeezed middle” Tower Hamlets residents, who came together to build their own affordable homes, after attending LB Tower Hamlets Self Build Forum, a regular meeting organised by the local authority for people on their self build register.

How we’re helping
Squeezed London have been working with our associate advisers to establish ways of working as a group and put together their business case. We helped to clarify their organisational structure, and introduced them to a Housing Association interested in offering small sites for CLH whilst securing close to market value. We supported the group’s due diligence and offer for the site, although this was ultimately not close enough to what the landowner was seeking.
The group subsequently prepared proposals for the Lark Row site through Tower Hamlets’ affordable self build programme, and were selected as preferred bidder. We are currently supporting them in various aspects of the development process.

 

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St Clements,
London CLT

London’s first Community Land Trust providing genuinely affordable homes in London and keeping them affordable in perpetuity.  

Number of homes 23 genuinely affordable homes
Location Mile End
Stage Completed 2017

How they formed
London CLT was born out of the community organising efforts of Citizens UK in response to the need for genuinely affordable homes in London. London CLT is registered as a Community Benefit Society and is governed by its members. Anyone who lives in London can buy a £1 share and become a member. This gives a vote at the AGM, and the ability to stand for election to the board. The prominent former St Clements hospital site became the focus of campaigns by Citizens UK and London CLT members in 2009. The Greater London Authority, who owned St Clements, agreed to explore possibilities for a CLT on the site.

Securing the site
The GLA ran a competitive bidding process for the site in the early 2010s. London CLT was part of a consortium led by Igloo Regeneration. Their bid included a widespread community-led design process, and genuinely affordable homes in perpetuity. The consortium lost the bid, however the support for a CLT, meant the GLA asked the successful developer, Galliford Try, to see if they could work with London CLT. A partnership was formed after several exploratory conversations.

Design and construction
The site was developed by Linden Homes, part of the Galliford Try group. The scheme provides 252 new homes. The section 106 planning obligation required 35% of these to be affordable, including 58 for social rent managed by Peabody, and 23 Community Land Trust homes. The freehold of the site was to be transferred to a community foundation which collects ground rents for charitable purposes.
London CLT held community design sessions with the developer’s architects, John Thompson & Partners to develop local people’s ideas for the site. The CLT also looked at ‘meanwhile uses’ on the site before the homes were built and held the Shuffle festival which uses culture to bring people together.

Finance and affordability
Providing genuinely affordable homes and keeping them affordable in perpetuity required a unique solution. London CLT bought each home through a back-to-back mortgage arrangement once they were built. Essentially, this means each resident’s mortgage is used by the CLT to buy each home, meaning no borrowing was required by the CLT.
The sale price of each CLT home is directly linked to median incomes in Tower Hamlets, not their market value. This resulted in £130,000 for a 1 bedroom flat, £182,000 for a 2 bed and £235,000 for a 3 bed. This is around one third of their market value.
The CLT residents can sell the property on to another household identified by the CLT at any point, but only at a price linked directly to local incomes. This arrangement means that residents buying with an initial discount receive a diminished financial return when they sell. It removes housing market speculation from the house price and keeps all 23 homes permanently affordable by local people.

Living there
The first CLT residents moved in 2017. An independent CLT panel selected the home-owners, taking account of housing need, local connection and ability to secure a mortgage, as set out in the CLT’s allocation policy. Each household raises their own mortgage, and buys the home fully (at a discount to market value).
The CLT is working with residents to create a cohesive community at St. Clement’s, and to make use of the community space in the John Denham building for events and activities. Residents will take a leading role in how the site and community space is run. Shuffle has become a successful festival and continues in the neighbouring Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park.

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