Community groups who want to build homes will be given a boost thanks to a £4.5 million investment from independent trust Power to Change. The organisation is launching Homes in Community Hands, a £4.2m fund to support capacity building and pre-development costs for community led schemes. It is also providing grants to the Community Land Trust (CLT) Fund, to support a blended funding programme with CAF Venturesome.

The Homes in Community Hands programme, administered by Community Led Homes, will award grants averaging £50,000 to community led housing groups, including community land trusts, cohousing groups, and housing co-operatives.

Grants will cover the costs for new build and refurbishment projects of:

• Site stage feasibility work to assess the viability of a site or buildings for development
• Plan stage pre-development work leading to submitting a planning application (if required)
• Post planning costs for work to get a project ready to start on site

Rose Seagrief, programme manager in charge of housing at Power to Change said: “We are delighted to be launching these funds to support the increasing number of community groups who want to create better places to live now and in the future by delivering permanently affordable homes. Nationally, 5,500 community led homes are expected to be built over the next five years but groups need help with the costs in the early stages of these projects to get these essential schemes off the ground.”

Samantha Jones, Head of Community Led Homes, said: “Power to Change has supported the community led housing movement for many years now. Their commitment to investing in entrepreneurial communities and their truly innovative community led housing projects is fantastic, and will help the movement to achieve its mission of becoming a mainstream housing option.”

The Community Land Trust Fund provides pre-planning and development finance to community land trusts in the form of unsecured loans from CAF Venturesome, ranging from £25,000 up to £70,000 at pre-planning stage. Power to Change is providing grants – up to 50% of the loan value- to sit alongside these pre-development loans to help CLTs buy in additional capacity and professional support, and in some cases to refinance existing loans to help to kick start stalled projects.

More information on the Homes in Community Hands grant programme is available on the Community Led Homes website here: www.communityledhomes.org.uk

For more information on the CLT Fund, visit https://www.cafonline.org/charities/borrowing/social-investment/community-land-trust