Communities in England have chance to build their own homes

A new programme to help communities tackle the UK housing crisis by building their own homes has been launched by Locality, using a grant of £160,000 from the Nationwide Foundation.

The Early Stage Support Programme will help 22 community groups in England start up their own Community-led Housing projects to provide affordable, decent homes for local people. The programme is open for applications until 12 August.

The UK housing market doesn’t work properly – communities can be affected by problems ranging from large numbers of empty and unloved properties, very poor quality rental homes, rocketing rents and sky-high house prices. In many areas across the country decent quality, secure, affordable homes are out of reach for many. But a growing number of communities are refusing to be beaten by the housing crisis, choosing to take matters into their own hands.

Successful groups will receive expert mentoring, one-to-one support and funding to help their early stage Community-led Housing projects get going.

More details including who can apply and how to apply for the Early Stage Support Programme can be found on the Locality website.

There are examples of current UK community-led housing schemes within these case studies.

At World Habitat our goal is to support and enable the continued growth of Community-led Housing. We believe that Community-led Housing has the potential to be a genuine, scalable alternative to the standard models of housing provision, and that by working together this is more likely to become a reality.

Find out more about World Habitat’s work on Community-led Housing in England.