Skip Navigation

Project financial viability

A feasibility study is an initial outline of costs and income to provide a route map for the project. At this early stage of formation, you may need to secure some grant to meet the cost of

  • forming the CLT as a legal entity
  • stationery, photocopying and other administration costs
  • hiring a hall or meeting room for community meetings
  • securing legal or financial advice

Options for seeking up to £2,000 for these costs include

  • the parish council
  • the county community council (in England the federal body for all the parishes: in Wales the community council means the parish council)
  • the district council (some have an annual bidding round for voluntary sector funding)
  • Voluntary Services Council
  • a local charity
  • national or regional community empowerment funding: the Development Trusts Association is likely to be a good source of information on the kinds of funds which exist
    your own fund-raising efforts

The CLT Fund is also an option. They fund:

  • 1-2 day feasibility consultancy by a number of organizations and individuals which should provide you with a “concept note” setting out your plans and the obstacles to be overcome
  • £2,500 technical aid to pay for consultancy to put your plan together
  • pre-development grant which, as well as =design and planning fees, could covrr technical support

However to apply to the CLT Fund you need already to qualify as a CLT so the process of visioning and forming a legal entity may well need prior funding.
The technical competence tool generates a rapid estimate of costs by entering the numbers of each type and size of home (and other amenities) that your scheme needs to include. Using the housing worked example you can find out how a scheme could be made feasible by selling different levels of equity, borrowing on different terms, cross-subsidising from open market or high equity percentage sales or by securing grant income. You can then apply similar ideas to your own scheme to come up with a plan of how you intend to make it work.

You should not embark on the journey towards trying to develop your housing scheme until you have first sketched out the way forward in this way.

The project management tool allows you to add details to this as your scheme develops and as you gather information about site conditions and access. You can gradually substitute item by item cost estimates and the agreed land price; as well as adding details such as the cash flow forecast. The initial feasibility study can thus evolve into the financial forecasts you will need to incorporate into your business plan.

Please click here to access the Project Feasibility Toolkit.