A recent project has successfully raised awareness of and enthusiasm for Community Led Housing across rural North and East Yorkshire. Where there had previously been no developments of this type, the work engaged with a large number of communities and stakeholders to help them understand the opportunities and led to the identification of twelve pilot rural communities who would like to pursue community led housing developments.
Work on one of the pilots, North Yorkshire’s first community led housing scheme, started on site last month in Richmondshire. Villagers in Hudswell – already famous for its award winning community pub – are coming together to build three houses for local people who cannot afford to buy a home there. We hope that the great work that they have been doing there inspires other community groups to bring forward additional projects across our area.
The project was funded by the Nationwide Foundation, UK Cohousing Network and North Star Housing Group and was undertaken by Social Regeneration Consultants, working closely with Rural Housing Enablers, Local Authorities and Community First Yorkshire.
Gary Hartin, Programme Manager from the Nationwide Foundation, said: “We know that although individual community-led housing schemes are often small, the energy and commitment of local people and organisations can create a big impact for the individuals and communities in which they work. This has been clearly demonstrated by the success in north and east Yorkshire, where this project has unleashed and nurtured the potential for 12 schemes to progress to the stage of creating affordable homes, which is a cause for much celebration.”
A set of resources to help rural communities understand community led housing will be produced later in the year and the pilots and the report from this work will now link in with wider activity across the area, supported by the recently allocated Community Housing Fund from the Government.
If you would like to know more about community led housing, please contact your Rural Housing Enabler or Community First Yorkshire. More information and a copy of the final report is available here
MORE INFORMATION
Sarah Hall (York, North Yorkshire & East Riding Housing Strategy Manager)
sarah.hall@hambleton.gov.uk 01609 767090