New programme will help communities build their own homes

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A new scheme launched by Locality will help communities to tackle housing shortages in their local area by building their own homes…

Twenty-two groups are set to start their own community-led affordable housing projects as part of a new initiative.

The Early Stage Support Programme, launched by Locality and funded by Nationwide Foundation, will see £160,000 plugged into helping address the housing crisis on a local level.

Locality chief executive Tony Armstrong said: “This new programme will help people to take back control of one of the most important issues facing us in the UK today.

“The housing crisis is on everyone’s minds as people are priced out of buying their own homes, paying exorbitant rents in the private sector or forced to wait for years on the social housing register.

“But it doesn’t have to be like this. Communities can and should be building their own housing and there are already lots of successful community groups building the kinds of homes their area needs.

“This new programme will help people all over the country become masters of their own destinies and do something provide quality affordable housing for themselves, their families and their communities.”

The programme will support the 22 groups by plugging the funding gap for those in the early stage of setting up their projects.

Currently, community-led housing projects account for only one per cent of the market, but are starting to gain traction as a way of meeting local housing demand.

Gary Hartin, programme manager at the Nationwide Foundation, also commented, stating: “We are firm believers that community-led housing offers a meaningful way to create more genuinely affordable housing.

“Our ambition is to see it more widely used and acknowledged as a valuable tool to help tackle the desperate shortage of affordable and decent homes.

“Our grant to Locality will lead to the identification of the most effective ways to make this happen.”

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