The number of Community Land Trusts (CLTs) active in England and Wales has grown from almost nothing to more than 300 over the last decade, with the vast majority focussed on delivering community-led housing.
The Community Housing Fund helped kickstart a support infrastructure
The big push was provided by the government’s £163m Community Housing Fund, which closed at the end of 2019. Following delays in its starting, and an underestimation of the lead times needed for community-led developments, only a fraction of its available capital grant fund (some reports put the figure at just 15%) had been allocated when it came to an end.
But the start up funding that was allocated succeeded in creating a network of 27 so-called Enabler Hubs across England and Wales, regional organisations providing advice and support. It helped kickstart many CLTs that are still working on hundreds of schemes today, with over 20,000 homes currently in the pipeline.
The hubs are very much at the centre of local and regional community-led housing activity. Some city hubs such as Birmingham and Greater Manchester are very active, while others are still at relatively early stages in terms of built projects.
In London, £38m was received from the fund. The London Community Housing Fund, run independently by the mayor, is still open to new funding applications until March 2023, unless funds are exhausted before then.
A list of all Enabler Hubs can be found on the Community Led Homes website, the umbrella partnership that includes the National Community Land Trust Network and close relatives the Confederation of Co-operative Housing and UK Cohousing.
Architects skills are essential and should not be provided for free
Architects attracted to the idea of supporting local non-profit affordable housing ventures should make sure they receive fair compensation for their work.
Charlie Fisher, Housing Lead at co-operative architecture practice Transition by Design and accredited Technical Adviser to CLTs since 2013, says there has been a tendency among some advisory agencies to encourage trusts to tap architects as a free resource, a practice he is keen to push back against.
"Architects’ skill sets are essential at early stages, but it should not be a free service. It might be something that large practices with their larger resources might want to do, but it is far more difficult for small practices."
In his role as Technical Adviser, Fisher guides groups through the process from concept through to completion. He helps them employ architects for early stage design work in a normal client-consultant relationship with clearly outlined responsibilities.
For subsequent work stages, CLTs have to put design work out to tender. Fisher says that while it might make sense for trusts to stick with the architects they are already working with, and so benefit from relationship continuity, there must still be a transparent tendering exercise.
Charlie Fisher will share his experience of helping set up CLTs and lead them to success, and the opportunities for architects in working for community housing clients at the RIBA Guerrilla Tactics conference for small practices in November 2022.
Architects interested in advertising their services should register with local Enabler Hubs
When CLTs are looking for technical advisers they are unlikely to look beyond the list of accredited advisers maintained by their local Enabler Hub.
Community Led Homes currently requires prospective advisers to complete a four-module training course at a cost of £800. However, Fisher says there have been arrangements in the past to allow fast track accreditation routes for those who can demonstrate they already have skills in certain areas.
Architects do not need to be accredited to win design work. Instead, Fisher points out they can attach themselves to hubs as associates. This gives them visibility to local groups and provides opportunities to offer architectural services when these are tendering for work.
Will partnerships with developers offer growth potential?
Community-led housing continues to take a wide variety of forms, including grassroots groups looking to create small scale affordable housing in rural areas, and urban infill sites where CLTs may be partnering with local authorities, housing associations, or innovative profit-with-purpose developers such as TOWN and Igloo Developments.
While most schemes are small scale and rely on long term community stewardship, CLT-led affordable housing schemes – along with those promoted by housing co-ops and co-housing groups – have more recently started to be incorporated into large scale, assembled land schemes.
Fisher says there is growing interest in how community-owned schemes can plug into such developer-led schemes. They can be a cost-effective way for developers to satisfy local plan policies on affordable, low carbon housing or self-build, while in return enabling easier access to land. Larger schemes also offer scope for installing professional management structures and thus securing the long term success of community-led schemes.
In the Low Fold riverside development in Leeds, CITU is developing an exemplar Climate Innovation District. A Community Interest Company will be set up to assume ownership of the freehold on completion.
Residents will buy bonds in the company that will own communal areas, maintain building envelopes at the highest standards of efficiency, and invest in cutting edge sustainable technologies as they become available.
Fisher says the word in community-led housing circles is that the government was ready to confirm a new government support grant scheme before the leadership contest put everything on hold. There is a fresh wave of community-led activity on the horizon, he predicts.
Thanks to Charlie Fisher, Housing Lead, Transition by Design.
Text by Neal Morris. This is a Professional Feature edited by the RIBA Practice team. Send us your feedback and ideas.
RIBA Core Curriculum topic: Architecture for social purpose.
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