We support people making homes together through Cohousing, Community Land Trusts, and Housing Co-operatives
A community converting vacant land to affordable housing for the community.
Bromley CLT was established in response to the lack of affordable housing in the borough.
They aim to acquire vacant land and provide low-cost housing for local people, holding the land for the wider community’s benefit. Rents or sales of leases will be at less than market rate.
They have identified a number of underused sites owned by a large hsouign association, and are gathering supporting to acquire the land.
The East End Trades Guild is an alliance of 400 small businesses, looking to take commercial arches into community ownership to ensure affordable space for businesses that contribute to the community.
First Brick Housing is a democratically-run, non-profit, member-owned organisation aiming to build housing and community spaces for LGBTQ+ people, creating environments where people can live safely, free from oppression and socialise in a place they can call their own.
We have provided initial advice on structuring the organisation.
They are currently seeking donations and volunteers to get the project off the ground.
The Royal Borough of Greenwich released the Felixstowe Road site in Abbey Wood specifically for Community Land Trusts.
Greenwich join a string of boroughs including Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Croydon, and Camden in creating opportunities for community led housing, with several others working on individual schemes.
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”.
Greenwich Citizens Housing and London CLT were successful in being selected with designs consisting of 12 homes, including 6 two-storey houses flanked by two three-storey blocks of flats. Every home has a front door onto a pedestrianised ‘play street’.
They also secured the Susan Road sites in Kidbrooke.
How we’re helping
We supported two groups in preparing proposals for the council, and are funding London CLT to progress a planning application with Archio.
London CLT are looking to provide 100% affordable housing for Southwark residents at Scylla Road in Nunhead.
In 2015, people across Peckham and Nunhead came together through local institutions to discuss the challenges they faced in their daily lives. The lack of affordable housing was one of the most frequently raised, and formed the agenda for a new community alliance, Peckham Citizens, launched in 2016.
Over the next few years, the group negotiated with Southwark Council about supporting CLT homes, considering homes as part of wider council developments, and undertaking a wide-ranging site search across SE15.
Scylla Road was settled upon in 2020. We supported initial feasibility work, and London CLT are now focused on how to deliver genuinely and permanently affordable homes on this site.
They aim to create a distinctive and welcoming place that is good for both local people and the environment, based on an understanding of how the community works. They will bring together ideas on how to improve the site, meet local need, and design homes and public realm that is relevant to the local context.