Community led housing

Community-led housing schemes deliver new homes that will be owned or managed by the community. Developments can be for the benefit of the local community, a specific group of people, or both. It can be a new build or refurbishment, in a rural area or a town.

There are many different types of community-led housing including:

On land owned by a Community Land Trust
A housing co-operative or a co-housing scheme
In partnership with a Housing Association, private land owner or developer

There are established national organisations that can provide guidance information to get you started:

Funding for Community-led Housing

The Government’s Community Housing Fund is managed by Homes England. The bidding for this grant programme finished last year. However, on 30 January 2021 the government announced the renewal of the Community Housing Fund for 2021/2022 to support community led housing. The Community Housing Fund will provide revenue funding aimed at supporting community-based organisations to progress opportunities for local house building projects and prepare bids to access grant funding from the Affordable Homes Programme. We hope further information will be available shortly.

The Community Led Homes website has a comprehensive list of funding sources for Community-led housing.

We have a small amount of funding to support groups in the Cotswolds with their Community-led housing projects.

There are two grants available:

the start-up grant of up to £1000, for groups to become established in their community and incorporate into a formal organisation
pre-development grant (up to £10,000) for established groups who are progressing their housing project to planning application stage.

Get in contact

For more information please contact the Gloucestershire Rural Community Council.