If you want to create housing for you and your community, we can help with development, partnerships, and acquisitions. Here are the first steps:
Form or join a group
You may decide to join an existing group or form a new group of enthusiastic people. Get the word out locally, talk to people you know, or post on our facebook group to meet others. Look at other projects or check the latest to learn more.
Getting Your Group Ready covers some basics >>
Book an advice session
Our team and advisers are available to mentor and support you. We can help you refine your objectives, think through various legal and governance structures, ways to develop or acquire homes, and their long-term management.
Get in touch for initial advice sessions >>
Get Support and Mentoring
We offer focused, pragmatic and tailored support to set your project off on the right foot and ensure it is effectively cliented. We act alongside you in identifying opportunities and brokering relationships with landowners and/or partners. We can support you with financial appraisals, site capacity, and due diligence.
Group, Concept, and Site Identification
We provide specific guidance, insights, and recommendations based on our wide-ranging knowledge of community led housing and a detailed understanding of your context and skills. We take the time to explain options, support informed decision-making, and act alongside you to find sites. We will:
- Help identify and clarify your objectives, purpose, and common values,
- Discuss good governance and democratic procedures, encourage clear roles and responsibilities,
- Explain legal incorporation options and manage incorporation on your behalf,
- Discuss development options, long term management, tenures, costs, risks, fundraising, and finance,
- Support to shape your strategy and prepare a concise business plan / proposal / site brief,
- Identify funding opportunities for the project and help apply for various sources of funding,
- Act alongside you in identifying opportunities, making introductions, and brokering relationships with landowners and/or potential partners,
- Review sites you identify, giving feedback and highlighting potential constraints and opportunities. For a further fee we can also carry out a professional site search for you.
Landowner / Partner Engagement
Once clear and realistic sites or opportunities are identified, you still need to be actively engaged and make decisions, but we can act alongside you or on your behalf to:
- Carry out, commission, or advise on due diligence, capacity studies, costings, and appraisals,
- Advise on engagement and participation, balancing wider voices and effective decision-making,
- Develop strategies to best engage a landowner and/or partner, synthesising your feasibility proposal,
- Engage the landowner/partner with your proposal and seek MoU or agreement in principle.
Agreeing and Securing the Site/Partnership
Where a landowner or partner is interested, you may develop further detail to reach a legal agreement on the site and/or partnership. We can act as interim project managers and/or advise on the appointment of development managers and stay on hand. On a purchase, we would see through to exchange and completion. For example, we can:
- Develop the programme with task and owner milestones, tracking actions and managing risks,
- Identify funding opportunities for the project and help apply for various sources of funding,
- Help assemble and coordinate further work with the professional team and arrange pre-apps,
- Develop and explain financing options and engage lenders and funders to discuss terms,
- Establish contact with landlord / management partners, where needed,
- Advise on instructing solicitors, and develop Heads of Terms with landowners,
- Manage the acquisition process, managing risk, negotiating final contract terms,
- Liaise with potential development partners on Development Agreement terms.
Planning Permission and Implementation
We can continue to act alongside the project to ensure there is knowledgeable and experienced ‘clienting’ as exists in developing housing associations but is not available as a service in the market. We can:
- Help you make decisions quickly and confidently and ensure everyone is working effectively,
- Ensure your views as client or end purchaser are considered by consultants and stakeholders,
- Pre-empt potential construction, legal and finance/funding issues during planning,
- Ensure finance and funding are finalised effectively,
- Support you to prepare for property ownership and management.
Cost recovery
Our costs are designed to be proportionate to the project. We work on a consultancy basis where funds are available.
However we understand it is difficult for many CLH groups to fund this kind of work early on in a project themselves. So we may offer a cost recovery model where our costs are clear up-front and only become chargeable to the project if and when funding is secured. This may come from applications we can help with, or from lenders at start on site, or from development partners.
We managed early stage revenue from the GLA’s Community Housing Fund, which is now allocated. However we may be able to help secure other funding, or let you know if funding becomes available.
See what other groups thought about working with us >>
Training and resources
We suggest reviewing the following free resources to get started:
We also run seminars on site searching, development viability and finance with accompanying guides and other resources. These are free for groups we are working with, or with a small charge otherwise:
