Community-led housing projects across the country are set to benefit from a £6 million funding boost to help them build more of the homes that their area needs, Housing Minister Kit Malthouse MP has announced.
The Community Led Homes Programme – managed by 4 leading housing charities – will provide local people with funding to kickstart community-led housing developments that will benefit their neighbourhood.
Funding of up to £10,000 will be provided to groups to cover start-up costs such as legal fees, and a further £3.5 million will be made available to provide technical advice and support to guide communities through the process of building the housing they urgently need.
Housing Minister, Kit Malthouse MP, said, “For too long, governments of all stripes have failed to build the homes our country needs, but we are turning that around.
“Last year we delivered over 222,000 homes but we need to deliver more good quality properties, and the community-led housing programme will help us do just that.
“Alongside £6 million of funding, the programme will also provide crucial training and advice to local groups, ensuring that we are not just building better homes but also building better communities.”
Head of Community Led Homes, Samantha Jones, said, “Communities want to play their part in tackling the country’s affordable housing crisis and many are forming community led housing groups to do so.
“In the next five years the movement will build over 5,000 affordable homes. We’ve created the Community Led Homes programme to help this figure increase further still, and in time, for community led housing to become a mainstream housing option.”
Community-led housing enables communities of all shapes and forms to take the lead in building and renovating homes, helping people to come together to solve their own housing challenges and build high-quality, affordable homes.
The new programme aims to strengthen the vital role that community-led housing can play in delivering much-needed affordable housing, helping the sector to play its part in getting Britain building and delivering the homes our country needs.
The department is looking to commit £6 million over a two-year period. The payment of the full allocation in 2019 to 2020 will depend on the full and appropriate defrayal of the £2 million allocation in 2018 to 2019. This must be in line with the project as defined in the funding agreement and the satisfactory delivery of the project against project targets.
Community Led Homes aims to make community-led housing a mainstream housing option and will provide training, funding and practical support to housing groups, councils and developers.
It is run by four leading community-led housing organisations: Confederation of Co-operative Housing; Locality; National Community Land Trust Network; UK Cohousing.
They have come together with the aim of making it easier for communities to access support for building community-led homes.
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