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Surge Co-op

17 May 2020

Surge Co-operative aims to create sustainable and affordable moorings for larger boats and barges in London, making use of underused historic wharves in the Lower Lea.

Surge is a non-profit organisation set up with the primary focus to reanimate tidal water spaces with affordable, co-operatively run moorings. They are nurturing the heritage and biodiversity of the area and building lasting community links on land and water.

The group are collaborating with Thames Water to transform a strip of land and reinstate barge moorings, enabling the local community to have better river access for clean-ups and other ecological activities. This is part of a wider plan to provide and nurture affordable co-operative moorings, giving much needed security of tenure to a community of boaters with larger boats along the River Lea and further afield.

How we’re helping
We are providing guidance on how to engage landowners and continue negotiations, as well as financial modelling.

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Heads2Gether

17 May 2020

Heads2Gether aim to provide mutually supportive and secure affordable interim housing for single parents on low incomes.

Heads2Gether formed as a group of single parents during experiences in temporary accommodation, but involve other families and individuals from Croydon. Their key aim is to provide safe, secure, mutually supportive, affordable homes for their members as well as the establishment of community childcare.

How we’re helping
We have held workshops and advised on incorporation. We introduced pro-bono architectural support and went through outline viability to support a their bid for the Lawns site in Croydon. Our support helped turn an idea into a credible proposal which impressed the Council.
More recently we helped incorporate Heads2Gether as a Housing Co-operative, and identified a site and sympathetic landowner. We are facilitating a partnership with a housing association to co-produce a development on this site, and been working on the terms of the development with a view to focusing on management and allocation arrangements in due course.

Brent CLT

6 October 2018

Affordable housing by the community for the community.

Brent CLT was established in response to the lack of local affordable housing across Brent, when the Harlesden Neighbourhood Forum originally included a commitment to explore community-led housing locally in their Neighbourhood Plan.

A steering group identified a several potential sites in collaboration with Brent Council. After having sites earmarked and withdrawn, a disused block of garages on a busy road was settled upon. The CLT recruited more members and volunteers from across the borough, and developed a functional brief through a series of capacity studies and workshops.

They are looking at a rented scheme aimed at homeless single people and couples, and are looking for more members to join locally and get involved.

The CLT explored modular or pre-fabricated construction to produce an efficient design minimising construction costs. Once the site was formally secured from the council, the CLT selecting a professional team including Bell Philips architects, who submitted a planning application in February 2026.

How we’ve helped
We facilitated meetings on organisational structure and have supported work on project vision and viability over many years. We helped with getting council cabinet approval for the site transfer and terms, and helped to assemble a professional team, and explored modern methods of construction, as the concept was formalised. We also established a relationship with a Housing Association to take on the delivery and management of the scheme post-planning, in line with the considered view of the CLT.

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E16 CLT

27 September 2018

E16 CLT was founded in 2018 by the People’s Empowerment Alliance for Custom House (PEACH) as a resident-led response to the stalled regeneration of the area.

PEACH was set up by residents from the schools, churches, streets and clubs of Custom House to support each other, build strength and have a say over decisions which affect the community. It is part of the Big Local programme. Members voted on PEACH priorities include Jobs, Housing, Safety, and Health.

Following residents’ concerns over the management of “temporary” homes, PEACH helped to stop evictions and improve living conditions for private and council tenants in the area. Residents felt that the regeneration of the area needed to be led by the community and began to develop an ‘Alternative Regeneration Plan’. It involved a year long period of engagement and listening process with a team of community organisers, architects, and local residents in training. They knocked on over 1,000 doors to have 150 in-depth conversations and held 10 workshops with 170 people. They developed principles for regeneration in their local community, including genuine affordability – that new housing, shops, and services should be linked to local wages/income, and not to market price. The phased community led masterplan sought to increase the 560 homes in the area to 2000, with residents only having to move once.

To meet the need for genuinely affordable homes managed by the community for the community, PEACH founded the E16 Community Land Trust. The CLT now has a full board and a growing membership of at least 175 members from the local area. Elected Community Representatives are taking an active role in the coproduction of design, viability and planning work of the first phases of the masterplan with council officers.

How we’re helping
We supported the CLT commission feasibility work to build homes on two sites the CLT had identified in the next phases of the masterplan. Although the council was initially supportive of proposals, these sites turned out to be unworkable. We subsequently supported E16 CLT to explore partnership options which secure permeant CLT affordability within council developed sites, and have more recently identified two promising smaller sites in E16.

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NW3 CLT

27 September 2018

A group of local residents looking to provide permanently affordable key worker housing in Hampstead.

NW3 is a high-value area in LB Camden, home to the Royal Free Hospital, over 50 schools and many small businesses. With house prices growing rapidly it has become increasingly difficult for many people, and key workers in particular, to find affordable housing.

Local residents set up NW3 Community Land Trust with an active and skilled board and volunteers hosting regular meetings and open events. The CLT has focused their attentions on an uninhabitable council-owned building. They are seeking to maximise the number of affordable homes in a conservation area, with a mix of tenures aimed at key-workers, social renters, and older downsizers looking for community in a high value area.

How we’re helping
We have worked with NW3 CLT to establish ways of working, focus their search for sites, and offered training workshops. We supported the preparation of financially credible proposals to the council, which were well received by officers and councillors. We are supporting work to finalise the terms of the land transfer, and the project is progressing towards a planning application following a fruitful design review and a series pre-application meetings. We have also engaged with local Registered Providers about taking on landlord responsibilities of rented units.

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