We support people making homes together through Cohousing, Community Land Trusts, and Housing Co-operatives
Camden Council has launched a community ‘call for ideas’ seeking the help of the local community in identifying underused council-owned sites that could be used to provide additional homes.
The programme also seeks views on how these homes should be delivered, including an interest in community-led or self-build developers who offer further benefits to the wider community.
For further information and any questions, please email NewHomesSmallSites@camden.gov.uk
This could be your opportunity.
The Royal Borough of Greenwich recently released two sites which are specifically available for Community Land Trusts.
Greenwich are the latest to join a string of boroughs including Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Croydon, and Camden in creating opportunities for community led housing, with several others work on programmes.
Cabinet Member for Housing, Cllr Anthony Okereke said “this initiative is part of our pledge to use innovative approaches to develop affordable housing in perpetuity for the borough’s residents and create sustainable communities”.
Details of the two garage sites in Kidbrooke and Abbey Wood are available through the council’s procurement portal by registering and searching for SPS 2457 under opportunities.
Proposals are sought by 28 January 2022.
Join us at this open forum exploring experiences, challenges and possibilities for change in developing CLH that is also migrant-refugee focused or friendly
After brief introductions from invited speakers, your contributions will inform the next stage of an action-research project with partners in Sweden and Austria entitled MICOLL: Migration and housing: meeting refugees’ housing needs through collaborative housing programmes.
Introductory Speakers:
Our director, Levent Kerimol, joined a panel to discuss the scope for developers and councils to enable and integrate community led housing in their schemes, large or small.
The discussion took place on 8 September, and was organised by Jessica and Robert Barker from Stolon Studio and environmental psychologist Veronica Simpson, with Martyn Evans from U+I, Cllr Danny Thorpe and Cllr Anthony Okereke from RB Greenwich, and Stephen Haynes from LB Hackney.
Listen back to the full discussion here:
Lev is speaking from 0:47 mins onwards
Rising Sun Housing Co-operative was formed by a group of artists who need investment to finalise the purchase of the former pub they live and work in from the landlord who recently put it on the market.
The building is used as both a home and workspace. It contains facilities such as a recording studio, rehearsal space, intimate venue and design studio which members of the community are allowed to use free of charge. On top of this, it provides crucial and increasingly rare affordable housing and a space for young creatives to build networks and meet other like-minded people. In short, The Rising Sun is a hub for all manner of creative outputs and a staple part of the local art and music culture.
We have helped to commission financial modelling and business planning, which has helped the co-op secure mortgages in principle, and prepare their loan stock offer. We have been directly involved in negotiating with the landowner and agents during to get their offer accepted, and bringing solicitors on board, and there has also been a little architectural input on internal reconfigurations to make better use of the space, and improve the building’s environmental performance.
They are now looking for investors to raise £230,000 with attractive rates of interest, or they will lose the space for good.