The term ‘community led housing’ is commonly used to describe homes that are developed and/or managed by local people or residents, in not for profit organisational structures. The UK Government announced a Housing White Paper in February 2017, which has implications for local communities, landowners, housing organisations and local authorities. This presentation highlights some of the key points.

1. 
Brief by Anna Malina - February 2017
The Current Government Initiative

2. Widespread Housing Crisis
 Not enough houses built over recent years
 Housing market different in different areas. Rural areas attract second
home buyers leaving little for local people
 Pace of housing development far too slow.
 Need to plan right homes in right places
 Build faster
 Diversify the housing market
 Strategies needed to build the homes people need taking account
of needs of different people

3. Community-led Emphasis
 Research has been conducted over time and strategic
emphasis has fallen strongly on estate regeneration
underpinned by community engagement, local
participation, innovation, a greater understanding of the
opportunities and a wider awareness of methods, resources
and support that can stimulate new thinking and cost
effective solutions at community level.

4. Risks of no Regeneration
Poor quality housing often has a negative impact on health
and educational attainment
Badly designed and maintained public areas can increase
crime and reduce social cohesion in the local area
However, regeneration activity can potentially increase skills,
enterprise and innovation at a local level, so helping to attract
more investment.

5.  The beginning of February 2017 saw the arrival of a new
‘Housing White Paper ‘ Fixing Our Broken Housing Market’
setting out the long and short term plans to reform the housing
market and boost the supply of new homes in England.
 Stakeholders tasked with developing policy and to work with local
authorities
Community
Land Trusts
Network
LOCALITY
Confederation
of Co-op
Housing
Nationwide
Foundation
Community
Housing
Alliance
Rural
Coalition

6. Strategies
 Support for home buying through ‘Help to Buy’ and ‘Starter Homes’
 Help households priced out the market through investment in Affordable
Homes Programme
 Make renting fairer for tenants
 Action to promote transparency and fairness for leaseholders
 Crack down on empty homes and support areas most affected by second
homes
 Housing to meet future needs
 Help for most vulnerable – sustainable approach to funding supported housing
in future; help for disabled and older people in need
 Help to prevent homelessness before things get too bad
 Help to reduce rough sleeping

7. Guiding Principles
 Progress to be underpinned by three important guiding
principles:
 Community to be engaged as partners
 Support and leadership of the local authority
 Willingness to work with the private sector to access
commercial skills and lever in investment
Supporting Organisations
Co-
operative
Housing
Community
Land Trusts
Development
Trusts
Self
Help/self-
build
Community
-Led
Housing
Associations
Mutuals Almshouses

8. Key Points
 Need to get plans in place asap
 Make plans easier to produce
 Assess Housing requirements
 Make land ownership and interests more transparent
 Make enough land available in the right places
 Bring brownfield land back into use
 Provide more homes on public sector land
 Provide support for small and medium sized sites, and thriving rural
communities
 Protect Green belt and amend only when all other reasonable options
are exhausted

9. Communities in the Driving Seat
 Thought to be easier for Community-led housing organisations
than traditional developers to broker support from residents and
the wider community
 suits smaller projects, which may not be attractive to larger
developers.
First time buyers are championed by local groups and funding
agencies are now in the driving seat, to deliver more affordable
community-led housing in their own areas.

10. Work Together & Build
Capacity
 The challenge is for all stakeholders to work together and build
capacity locally, eg. to improve technical skills, set up hubs to
offer advice and business planning, and provide the staff to review
local housing needs.
 Encourage holistic innovative approaches

11. Emphasis on ‘Place-Making’
 Estate regeneration schemes are to transform social
outcomes for local people and form part of a broader place-
based approach to improve the life chances of residents,
particularly those with complex needs
 Placemaking processes capitalise on a local community's assets,
inspiration, and potential, and results in the creation of quality public
spaces that contribute to people's health, happiness, and well being.
 Neighbourhood Planning Groups to receive funding
support, eg. to assess sites for housing

12. Resident Engagement &
Protection
 Need to ensure strong community support and protection
 Residents are the key partners in any scheme and should be involved
through all stages of the process.
 Collaboration between landowners, residents, tenants and local groups
will help everyone understand what is needed
 Training should be available
 A Resident’s Charter should protect tenants and leaseholders and define
commitments and opportunities
 Preserving a sense of community is important with thought given to
community links and family ties.
 Involvement in Management of the Estate is to play a vital role

13. Key Role for Local Authorities
 Local authorities have a significant role, eg. in promoting
housing supply, commissioning services, providing wider
place-based regeneration and local growth and supporting
cohesive communities.
 Place making; strategic use of public sector land, design and
effective use of the planning system.
 Engaging the community, providing appropriate information
and and conducting public consultation is crucial
 Removal of worst landlords and ability to issue fines as
appropriate

14. Key Role for Enablers
 Rural Housing Enablers eg. networking groups and landlords are
to liaise with local authorities and other statutory bodies and with
housing associations to identify suitable sites
 Rural Landowners (RLs) have a crucial role to play in the
provision of rural affordable housing by making sites available for
development
 Case studies highlight models of social investment in affordable
housing for rural landowners ... these can be customised/adapted
 Private rental sector to be more family friendly with longer
tenancies promoted

15. Partnerships
 Government has set up local and regional workshops
to meet, bring together and discuss challenges in
different places. Over 200 organisations have been
involved in discussing good practice resident
engagement, practice and design
 70 Local Authorities.
 60 Housing Associations.
 30 charities and community organisations.
 30 private developers, consultants and investors.

16. Financing Estate Regeneration
• Estate regeneration is complex and costly.
• Different kinds of finance options are needed to tailor
solutions to different challenges.
• Innovative methods of private finance is an important route
• Landowners are encouraged to look at different options to
deliver successful schemes.

17. Funding
 £60 million fund to help 150 councils tackle the problem of high
levels of second homes ownership in their communities.
 £5,945,896 available in the North West. Local councils will
play a key role in distributing Government funds
 Other investors eg. Big Society capital – £15m investment
facility for social investors to fund large-scale community
led housing projects

18. Community Buildings: Pre-
Feasibility Grants
 Community Buildings Pre-Feasibility Grant will help assess
the feasibility of a community building project prior to
submitting a Community Right to Build Order
 Community Buildings Project Grant – will help pay for help
to progress your community building project to the point of
submitting a Community Right to Build Order

19. Loans and Enabling Grants
 The Estate regeneration national strategy - £140 million of
loan funding, £30 million of enabling grant and £2 million
of capacity building funding is being made available to
support estate regeneration.
 Financial support is directly targeted at de-risking the early
stages of regeneration schemes and providing support to areas
for such activities as community engagement, feasibility
studies, scoping of proposals and masterplanning.
 Support is also available for preconstruction activities such
demolition and moving residents.

20. 3 Stage Plan – Prepare, Plan
and Deliver

23. Hopes for the Future – Good
Place making
 Besides the obvious benefits of people gaining a home in their
area, the hope is that local communities will become more
vibrant and cohesive as a result of being more socially
inclusive and interactive.
 Key goal is to ensure smaller overheads and increased local
accountability, more locally owned assets, jobs and economic
improvement and social and cultural benefits, in essence, the
creation of quality public spaces that contribute to people's
health, happiness, and well being

24. Concerns
 While the new measures are welcome, there remains some
concern that second home ownership may continue to be a
barrier.
 The fear is that local vitality will continue to suffer in these
areas.
 Vigilence needed

25. Ongoing
 Research and exploration of new case studies will continue
 Ongoing consultation remains part of the Housing White Paper
 views needed on
 changes to Planning Policy in relation to planning for housing,
sustainable development and the environment
 options for introducing a standardised approach to assessing
housing requirements
Closes early May 2017