Community-led housing in London receives £38m

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has launched a new £38 million fund for community-led housing, enabling Londoners to play a leading role in building new social rented and other genuinely affordable homes for local people.

Community-led housing allows local residents to get directly involved in building and managing new homes themselves, often through co-operatives and community land trusts. The new London Community Housing Fund is expected to unlock 500 community-led homes by 2023 and will make grants or loans available to support building, development, and delivery.

The new fund, won from central government as a result of the mayor’s lobbying, is significant progress towards his target of identifying a pipeline of schemes for 1,000 community-led homes in London by 2021.

Khan said: “In London we have become far too reliant on large developers to build new housing. We need more homes to be built by councils and by communities themselves – and so I want to support more community-led housing projects that put London residents at the heart of the process. We have listened to what community-led housing groups say they need, and in response this new fund offers practical support and help with development costs that have often held community-led projects back. I urge Londoners interested in developing their own homes to read our new guidance and bid for funding.”