1. Community Led Housing
Our experience to date

2. • More Homes More Choice
- 4,500 homes
- 200 new homes planned
- Mixed tenure
- Flexible solutions
• Working for Sustainable Communities
- Ethically run – corporate environmental ambitions
- Charitable status – helping communities “thrive” not
just “survive”
CORPORATE PLAN OBJECTIVES

3. • National
- 228 homes
- Mixture of providers (12)
- £25 million funding pot
- £4.9 million allocated
• Midlands
- 107 homes
- 3 main partners
• Longhurst Group
• Westleigh Developments
• Shropshire Housing
• Our Approach
- Marches CLT partnership
- 31% of national funding
- 68 new homes across the Marches
- Returning value to communities
- Compliments neighbourhood planning
- £1,305,600 allocation
ALLOCATION CONTEXT

4. What is Community Led?
“Communities can collectively own, develop
and/or manage their own land and
development”

5. Barriers ?
• Complexity of development
• Availability of funding
• Reducing grant per unit
• Access to expertise
• Risk adverse approaches

6. Our Offer
• Marches Community Land Trust
- Network of communities
- Access to expertise
- Peer support
- Trusted partner
- Asset strength – borrowing capacity
- Flexible on going stewardship

7. Strategic Partners
• Local Authority
 Housing Enablers
 Planners
 Councillors
• Town and/or Parish Councils
 Councillors
• Communities
 Our customers – new
- existing
 Our future customers
 NIMBYS/BANANAS
• Home and Communities Agency
• Shropshire Council
– NHB Funding revenue
– Incentivising communities with
NHB
– Local plan
– Enablers
• Herefordshire Council
– National leader on
Neighbourhood Planning
– Enablers

8. Our Schemes
• Lyonshall, Herefordshire
• Neenton, Shropshire
• Church Stretton, Shropshire
• Orleton, Herefordshire
• Onibury, Shropshire

9. Lyonshall
“Community Led housing
enabled Lyonshall to
provide affordable housing
on terms that the
community wanted. At long
last we were able to start a
housing project targeted at
the community which also
had the support of the
community” – Paul Avery,
Chair of Lyonshall Parish
Council

10. Neenton
“The way SSHA has engaged with our
community to deliver affordable housing as an
integral part of a major community project that
has helped make it happen has been crucial in
winning over the doubters” – John Pickup,
Chair, Neenton BenCom.

11. Church Stretton
“Coming together is a beginning, keeping
together is progress, working together is
success”. This quote from Henry Ford sums
up what the Ashbrook II Project Board is all
about. We came together in the beginning as
a group of enthusiastic people from all walks
of life who wanted to be involved in producing
the best affordable housing project for the
community of Church Stretton. We have gone
out to seek people’s views, deliberated over
architects, builders, site layout, design details
and building materials. We have agreed,
disagreed and compromised but in the end we
have a planned development which
encapsulated all our input. I now look forward
to it being a success” – Hilary ClaytonSmith –
Project Board Member and local architectural
quality champion

12. Orleton

13. Onibury
“From the first instance, the local community were consulted of the
proposed development, this is in the interest of good communications.
Our experience is one of an open agenda in public meetings and
committees, where all aspects of need, planning and design were
discussed, this has been welcomed by all” – Ray Jeavons, Onibury
Parish Councillor and Project Board Member

14. Long Term Stewardship
• Work for 2014
• Legal model agreed ‘Marches CLT’
• Community options
– Scrutiny
– Engagement in housing management
– Engagement in maintenance contracts
– Both
– Leasehold
– Ownership
Discussions regarding CLT or equivalent

15. Learning
What an organisation needs?
• An open mind, build trust
• A willingness to do more than housing
• Good communication
• Commitment to the journey
• Excellent innovative problem resolution
• Community at the heart of its actions
• Dedicated staff who understand the ‘more than bricks
and mortar business’

16. Learning
What you need to avoid!
• Over promising
• Not recognising time and resource implications
• Not joining up housing management and development
teams
• Not engaging strategic planning and development
control

17. Learning
Why would you get involved?
• Approached in the right way it delivers:
– Better scheme
– Better community engagement
– Acceptance
– Sustainable communities
• Empowers people and communities
• There is funding!
• It’s fun!

18. Thank you for listening