Housing minister Christopher Pincher has launched a new £4m fund to increase community-led housing and give better access to affordable housing
The new grant programme aims to give community-led housing groups better access to high-quality, affordable housing that meets the needs of local communities.
The funding 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 delivers housing that is affordable locally and remains under the control of the community through land trusts or housing co-operatives.
‘A leading and lasting role in solving housing problems’
Housing minister Christopher Pincher, 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 the MHCLG and will help 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 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.”
Applications will open on 23 August and will remain open until all funds are allocated or until 31 December, 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.
