Research undertaken by the National Community Land Trust Network has revealed that a third of local authorities in England are now supporting community led housing development.
- One in six councils has policies to support community led housing
- One in three councils have given grants or loans for community led housing
- At least 208 public sites have been sold or leased to community led housing groups
The information has been compiled following Freedom of Information requests to all councils in England in December 2018.
The complete dataset can be viewed here
While central government has said 300,000 properties need to be built each year until the mid 2020s, during the same period local authorities are facing an £8bn funding gap.
The research highlights how local authorities are starting to embrace new solutions to protect and strengthen their communities and places.
Community led housing projects are more likely to succeed when groups have developed a meaningful relationship with council officers and staff.
In fact, support to develop mutually beneficial relationships was uncovered as the top matter for National CLT Network members at gatherings which took place across the country last year.
Tom Chance, Director at the National CLT Network, said:
“We’re delighted to see that an increasing number of local authorities are acknowledging the role community led housing can play in tackling the county’s affordable housing crisis and that they are putting supportive policies in place.
“We hope our research will be helpful to our members. Not only will it highlight where councils have policies in place to speed up conversations, the data can also be used by community land trusts in areas where policies aren’t yet in place to strengthen negotiations and demonstrate where precedent exists.
“To further support community land trusts we’ve created some materials including an advocacy toolkit, a template manifesto and example introductory letter to kickstart the relationship building process.”