Introduction
Community-led housing is where people and communities play a leading and lasting role in their own housing solutions by developing and managing homes. By working together people can provide good quality and affordable housing for those who are priced out of the housing market. Open and meaningful community participation and consent takes place throughout the process. At the end of the project the community group or organisation owns and manages or stewards the homes in whichever way they decide to.
Community led housing is an umbrella term which covers a range of approaches including community land trusts, housing co-operatives, cohousing and community self-build.
Community Land Trusts
A Community Land Trust is a not-for-profit organisation that is made up of community members. They are community organisations that develop housing, community facilities or other assets to meet the needs of the community. Companies limited by guarantee, community interest companies and community benefit societies can all be established as Community Land Trusts.
The process a Community Land Trust follows is firstly to acquire land, either by buying it, on a long-lease or as a gift. Secondly it oversees the development of affordable housing to rent or buy and lastly the Community Land Trust remains a steward when the homes are complete.
There are different ways of organising a Community Land Trust:
- Stand-alone Community Land Trust: In a stand-alone Community Land Trust the community land trust takes full responsibility for funding, planning and development. The community land trust may choose to manage and maintain the completed properties or contract with a housing association to do this work for them.
- Partnering with a housing association: In this type of community land trust, the community land trust owns the freehold and the Housing Association has a long-term lease on the land. The community land trust leads on finding a site and deciding on the numbers and design of the homes. The housing association funds the development and develops, manages and maintains the homes.
More information is available at:
Co-operative Housing
Housing co-operatives are non-profit housing organisations where members democratically control and manage their homes. Some housing co-operatives own the homes that they manage, some lease them from another organisation (e.g. a housing association) and some manage properties that belong to a different landlord, such as their local council.
Unlike some other types of community-led housing, the membership of a co-operative is limited strictly to its residents. The community in question is made up of the people living together.
More information is available at The Confederation of Co-operative Housing
Cohousing
Cohousing schemes are intentional communities, created and run by residents who share a vision of how they wish to live. They can mix tenures with different degrees of equity.
Each household has a self-contained home exclusively for their use but they also share some communal space where they can choose to spend time collectively, such as sharing meals.
More information is available at UK Cohousing
Group self-build or collective custom-build
A self-build scheme can fall into the community-led housing category if it involves members of the community coming together to build their own homes. An individual self-build scheme is not a community scheme.
Self-builders might undertake most of the work or use contractors for some or all of the build. The self-build group could be a co-operative or a community land trust.
More information is available at The National Custom and Self Build Association