The government has put communities at the heart of high street regeneration through its Pride of Place plan. Aster Group’s chief investment officer, Amanda Williams, highlights why housing must be given the same focus, and how community land trusts (CLTs) can help anchor lasting local pride.
The government’s new Pride of Place plan is a timely and welcome move. By giving communities more control over their high streets, it rightly recognises that successful places are shaped and built for the people who live there.
But if this plan is to deliver genuine change that lasts, it must extend beyond shopfronts and town centres.
High streets don’t thrive in isolation – they are supported by the communities that surround them. That’s why affordable housing catered to local need is just as important as high street amenities in creating places people are proud to live in.
Community driven success
We’re seeing encouraging signs that the government agrees with this. Just last month, the New Towns Taskforce published its first major report, calling for future new towns to include self-build and community-led housing. It’s a positive signal that policy is starting to recognise the connection between housing, pride and place.
We see this connection daily. That’s why we place customer voice at the centre of how we shape and deliver our services. It’s important that we listen carefully to our customers and the often acute challenges diverse communities face and actively work to address them, be it through our Development programme or Customer Service offer.
We’re especially proud of our position as the UK’s leading housing association provider of community land trusts (CLTs) – housing schemes that are owned and led by the communities they serve.
CLTs give residents a meaningful role in shaping what gets built where, and for whom. This often leads to smarter and more sustainable design, with a result that responds to acute local needs by delivering affordable housing for the long-term. This means that they can be a particularly effective way to deliver housing in rural and urban areas with specific needs, while helping to reduce resistance to new homes during the planning process – a growing priority as we work to accelerate delivery nationally.
We’ve supported many of these developments over the past decade – from towns in Devon and Somerset to villages in Cornwall and on the Isle of Portland – and have seen first-hand the transformative impact that placing local people at the centre of key decisions can have.
Take Chagford CLT in Dartmoor National Park, for example. Community input allowed us to deliver 28 affordable homes in an area surrounded by protected green space, which can be notoriously difficult to account for in the planning process. This has formed part of a wider mixed-use scheme including a carpark, fire station and business centre, allowing local people to stay and continue their lives in the area they grew up in.
Unlocking long-term potential
It’s clear that there’s a real alignment between CLTs and the government’s priorities. The Pride of Place plan is about empowering local people – so are CLTs. The New Towns agenda is about creating communities, not just homes and CLTs are designed to do exactly that.
Yet despite their potential, they remain an underutilised tool. Many face planning barriers, struggle to access funding or are overlooked in local strategies. To change this, we need policy to recognise the long-term social value these projects bring.
The planning system needs to better recognise the impact of CLTs and dedicated funding must be made available to help projects get off the ground, particularly in rural and coastal areas where the housing crisis is often most acute.
A good place to start would be to mandate that a certain amount of CLT homes are included in each New Town development. This can then be followed by moves to grant local authorities the tools and support they need to include CLTs in their own regeneration plans.
This isn’t about slowing down or complicating development. CLTs can unlock sites others might avoid and de-risk delivery by bringing communities on board early, meaning that they can form a key part of a mixed-tenure approach to building new homes.
They can complement, not compete with, the work of housebuilders and local authorities.
Pride of Place begins at home
High streets will always be a symbol of local identity, but they are sustained by nearby housing. Real pride of place starts with people having a stake in where they live, and CLTs offer a proven route to achieve just that.
So, as the government’s plans move forward, it would be a mistake not to ensure that community-led housing plays a prominent role.
