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Community-led Housing Support

What is Community-led Housing?

Community-led Housing (or CLH) is as simple as it’s name – housing that is owned or managed by the community. Rooted in the principles of ABCD, CLH believes that putting communities at the centre of housing developments creates more affordable, sustainable, and cohesive places for people to live.

CLH includes several different types of schemes – including cooperatives, community land trusts, cohousing, and housing association collaborations – but all are built to meet local housing need and are managed by a community organisation.

What are Community Land Trusts?

Community Land Trusts (or CLTs) are democratic, non profit organisations that own and develop land for the benefit of the community. They typically provide affordable homes, community gardens, civic buildings, pubs, shops, shared workspace, energy schemes and conservation landscapes.

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Fiona and her colleagues have provided great support to our team in setting-up a new Community Land Trust in Steeple and Middle Aston. Knowing what needs doing next, and anticipating some of the potential pitfalls is a tremendous advantage. We’re working with local landowners aiming to get projects off the ground that will help meet the need for genuinely affordable housing for young people, and smaller homes for older people downsizing. One thing we’ve already learned is that these projects demand patience as well as the skills we’re learning from Fiona and others.

Martin Lipson, Steeple and Middle Aston Community Land Trust

Some key features

Run by ordinary people

They are community organisations run by ordinary people who want to make a difference to their local community, putting control of assets into the hands of local people. They can be set up by the community or a landowner, developer or council.

Protecting community assets forever

They ensure that their homes are permanently and genuinely affordable. CLTs act as long-term stewards of land and the assets on it. They ensure that it is put to the benefit of the local community, not just for now but for every future occupier.

A worldwide movement

Started by black leaders in the civil rights movement and others in the peace movement in the USA, CLTs are now a worldwide movement. In both urban and rural areas, CLTs are a key part of the future of land, affordable housing and community facilities.

A growing movement in Oxfordshire

9 community -land trusts across Oxfordshire with 36 homes built and 31 homes under construction. Its still an early movement but growing all the time.

Hook Norton: A Case Study

Hook Norton CLT (HNCLT) approached Cherwell District Council in 2018 with a proposal to build affordable homes on a small site owned by the council, that would bring to life an abandoned and overgrown piece of land in the heart of Hook Norton. The council supported the idea and transferred the land to HNCLT at a price that enabled the homes to be affordable to local people in perpetuity.

HNCLT purchased an adjoining piece of land from a local resident, to build four homes for sale at market value that will be identical in appearance to the affordable homes. These ultimately were sold as shared ownership homes to give people the chance of home ownership.

The CLT carried out extensive consultation with the local community to ensure they were building what the village wanted and needed; this included not only the new homes but a holistic approach to sustainability.

Therefore they developed a design which included common open space, a micro grid to provide a supply of local energy, space for an electric car club and a community building which now houses a co-working hub.

Greencore Homes, an award-winning Oxfordshire based sustainable construction company, were keen to build the homes, bringing expertise on a unique construction method of closed timber frame panels, insulated with layers of wood fibre, hemp, and lime. The homes are built to Passivhaus thermal standards and need very little heating. Each home is targeted to achieve better than Net Zero in terms of embodied carbon.

Soha housing brought the lease of the affordable homes and now offer a full management service to the new residents

Our Support

From co-housing and community land trusts to co-operative and self-help housing, we provide practical support and advice to all kinds of community-led approaches. Whether you are exploring a potential project or need guidance on a site, we can offer tailored support to groups across Oxfordshire.

Collaborative Housing is the local support hub that supports community-led housing groups across Oxfordshire from the initial idea through to finishing a local project. We provide advice for early stage groups free of charge and only charge groups once they have secured development funding.

Are you interested in starting a community-led housing project where you live, or are you interested in working with a community-led housing group? Would you like support with your community land trust? Get in contact with us for more information.

Get in contact

This service is made possible with the support of Oxfordshire’s Local Authorities: Cherwell, West Oxfordshire, Oxford City, South Oxfordshire, and Vale of the White Horse District Councils and Oxfordshire County Council.