There are several hundred projects underway in the UK that are trying to tackle the issue of homelessness in different ways. Community Land Trusts (CLT) ] act in the interest of a community, rather than profit for a corporation. CLTs have grown rapidly over recent years and there are nearly 300 in England and Wales, according to the National Community Land Trusts Network.
The idea is that a group of local people get together and develop sites so they are of real benefit to the community with affordable housing, green space, communal areas and whatever else they decide is appropriate.
Government launched the Community Housing Fund in 2016 with £60m going to local councils and registered groups to fund community-led housing that is affordable and creates a lasting legacy for that area, and it recently added £163m to that pot.
Residents moved in to London’s first CLT last year at the old St Clement’s Hospital site on Mile End Road. The house prices were based on the median income of local people (£235,000 for a 3-bedroom home) and its award-winning design was developed with the future residents’ input.
In February, Sadiq Khan said he was supporting two flagship community-led housing projects - one in Tower Hamlets and one in Lambeth by making public land available.
In Lewisham, the council has given a 250-lease of a one-acre site to a group of residents who have come together to build their own houses that will be sold for less than £80,000 for a 25% share of the property. Each buyer will commit to working 20 hours a week towards the project and take lessons in plumbing and plastering so they can contribute for the upkeep of the 33-home complex.
Another project is underway in Waltham Forest in London, where the borough’s councillors have agreed to build 600 CLT homes, where the price of the home is connected to the median local income, not the market price.
In Haringey, the Mayor bought the site for St Ann’s Redevelopment Trust to make sure at least 50% of the homes there are genuinely affordable. Now the community-led team are doing a survey to decide how the housing should be allocated to the people who’ve lived there for longest or who have the lowest incomes?