New £4 million fund launched to increase community led affordable housing

Communities will be given more opportunities to build homes in their neighbourhood thanks to a new £4 million fund launched today.

Today’s new grant programme, launched by Housing Minister Christopher Pincher, gives community-led housing groups better access to high quality, affordable housing that meets the needs of local communities. The money will help community groups meet a range of costs incurred in trying to develop housing. This could include paying for searches, administration costs or legal advice, design work and planning applications.

The community-led approach involves community-based groups taking responsibility for local housebuilding. It delivers housing that is affordable locally and remains under the control of the community through land trusts or housing co-operatives.

For example, the Granby Four Streets group have rebuilt their area in Toxteth, Liverpool including refurbishing derelict housing, producing homes for affordable rent, shared ownership and discounted market sale to protect and sustain the area they care about.

Housing Minister Rt Hon Christopher Pincher MP said:

Community-led housing is about local people playing a leading and lasting role in solving their housing problems, creating genuinely affordable homes and strong communities where mainstream housebuilders are unable to deliver.

The Community Housing Fund has been set up to support housing schemes that are truly community-led and will last for generations to come, helping ensure we build back better.

The Community Housing Fund Revenue Programme 2021 to 2022 is funded by Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and will help community-led housing groups in the latter stages of pre-development.

The Community Led Homes Partnership (CLH) will manage the grant programme, assessing all applications and administering the grants. CLH is a partnership of 4 leading community-led housing organisations:

Confederation of Co-operative Housing
Locality
National Community Land Trust Network
UK Cohousing Network
Tom Chance from Community Led Homes added:

Community led housing groups are rooted in their communities and truly understand local housing needs. There are so many fantastic community led housing projects planned across the country. This programme will help many of these projects come to fruition.

Tony Armstrong from Community Led Homes said:

It is well known that there is a shortage of genuinely affordable, high quality housing in England. We believe community led housing can, and should, play a central role in solving this problem. The CLH partnership is proud to be managing this programme on behalf of MHCLG.

Applications will open on 23 August 2021 and will remain open until all funds are allocated or until 31 December 2021, whichever occurs first. The programme will close in March 2022 – all work funding by the grant must be completed by this date.

To apply for the fund, groups will need to complete an eligibility checker on the Community Led Homes website. If eligible, groups will be emailed an online grant application form.

Today’s announcement follows the publication of the Bacon Review which recommended that reigniting the Community Housing Fund will create more opportunities for communities to build.