About the Toolkit

What is this Toolkit about?

This Toolkit is about helping housing professionals scale up the supply of community-led homes to contribute to tackling the nation’s housing problems. It brings together for the first time in one place a comprehensive suite of specialist documentation and advice required to develop and deliver community-led housing (or CLH) schemes.

It provides examples of practical, fundable and deliverable documentation, along with case studies and signposting, to make the development and delivery of CLH more efficient, speedier and easier. It also includes material that puts the growing CLH sector in context, providing an assessment of the business and social cases, and an indicative process map for different types of development.

The Toolkit complements Community-Led Housing: a Key Role for Local Authorities, published by the Co-operative Council’s Innovation Network in January 2018 and available here.

Who is it aimed at?

The Toolkit is aimed primarily at local authorities in England and Wales that are involved, or would like to be involved, in the promotion, support and development of community-led housing as part of their housing strategies. It will also have relevance to housing associations and other stakeholders that are working with local communities on housing delivery.

Although not specifically aimed at community organisations, the Toolkit may also be useful for groups interested in pursuing a community-led housing scheme, providing them with an understanding of the technical requirements and processes involved.

There are several Toolkits and Good Practice Guides aimed specifically at communities and local groups. These include:

What does it cover and how is it organised?

  • The Toolkit provides a comprehensive set of guidance on the technical aspects of delivering a community-led housing scheme
  • Following an introductory section that explains the context for community-led housing, the Toolkit is divided into five ‘toolboxes’, with 63 sections, covering Housing, Communities, Legal and Governance, Planning and Development, and Finance
  • Each toolbox includes a summary of its contents. The tools in each box provide links to further information and, where appropriate, case study snapshots, documents and templates, providing a downloadable set of resources on each subject
  • A glossary is included in the Toolkit which covers all the main technical terms used throughout the website and, where appropriate, provides links to further information about each term
  • Throughout the Toolkit we have used the abbreviation CLH when referring to community-led housing
  • The Toolkit website is easily searchable and accessible. The pages and snapshots are regularly updated and contain documents, links and information to help you get a better understanding of community-led housing
  • Information about HACT the Toolkit sponsors can also be found on the About Us pages and you can get in touch with us through a contact form.

Acknowledgements

The Toolkit originated from discussions on Teesside and in Leeds in June 2016 to mark the completion of the Empty Homes Community Grant Programme. There was much discussion there about the potential to improve knowledge and information amongst professionals about the legal, financial, planning and other technical aspects of making community-led housing schemes work. We are grateful to Sally Thomas (ex HACT and now Chief Executive of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations) and Jon Fitzmaurice (Self Help Housing) for turning this positive interest into a fully-funded HACT project.

The Toolkit was funded primarily by Nationwide Foundation with contributions from Ecology Building Society and LandAid. We would like to thank Gary Hartin, Paul Ellis/Jon Lee and Caroline Fraser respectively for their support, without which the Toolkit would not have seen the light of day.

The Toolkit has been researched and written for HACT by a small team led by Pete Duncan (Social Regeneration Consultants) and including David Alcock (Anthony Collins Solicitors), Jon Fitzmaurice (Self Help Housing) and Simon Underwood (Social Regeneration Consultants).

We would also like to thank John Montes and the Co-operative Council’s Innovation Network, whose report on community led housing was researched and written in parallel with this Toolkit, involving regular liaison.

The team is also particularly grateful to Barry Malki and Meghan Butt from HACT for all their support and input during both the research and writing phases of the Toolkit.

A large number of other people have inputted to the development of the Toolkit, through an Advisory Group and Sounding Board. HACT is particularly grateful to the following people for their input:

Anna Kear                      UK Cohousing Network
Cath ScaifeNewcastle City Council
Dave PalmerWales Coop Centre
Debbie WildridgeCLT East
Dinah RoakeLondon CLH Hub
Emily MulvaneyCLT East
Fiona MullinsCommunity First Oxfordshire
Martin NewmanGiroscope
Nic BlissConfederation of Co-operative Housing
Nigel KerseyDHCLG
Oona GoldsworthyUnited Communities
Paul ChattertonLILAC and Leeds Community Homes
Peter MooreCornwall Rural Housing Association
Sam IrvingCornwall Council
Sarah MayLeeds City Council
Tom ChanceNational Community Land Trust Network
Zoe GoddardLocality

Toolkit case studies and where to find them

The following case study snapshots are included in the Toolkit:

SnapshotToolkit Section
Accent Housing1.14
Ambition Lawrence Weston, Bristol4.5
Atmos, Totnes Community Development Society, Devon1.11
Back on the Map, Sunderland 1.1
Bath and North East Somerset Council                             3.2
Bolton at Home, Lancashire3.2
Bristol City Council1.17
Cadwyn Housing Association1.1
Calder Valley Community Land Trust, Yorkshire3.3
Calderdale Borough Council, Yorkshire3.7
Canopy Housing Project, Leeds4.3
Communities CAN, Northumberland1.13
Cornwall CouncilAbout CLH5.5
Cottenham Parish Council, South Cambridgeshire4.5
East Cambridgeshire District CouncilAbout CLH1.84.15.5
East Riding of Yorkshire Council5.3
Frome Town Council, Somerset4.5
Giroscope Hull2.4
Glendale Gateway Trust, Wooler, Northumberland5.6
Goodwin Trust 5.7
Granby Community Land Trust, Liverpool3.4
Gwalia Housing, Carmarthen, Wales1.10
Hambleton District Council, North Yorkshire1.13
Hastoe Housing Association, Somerset3.6
Headway Self Build Collective, Waltham Forest, London1.8
Home Baked Community Land Trust, Liverpool1.1
Home Farm Village Co-operative, Cardiff1.1
Hudswell Community Charity, Richmond, North Yorkshire1.8
Hull City Council5.7
K1 Cohousing, Cambridge1.9
Karbon HomesAbout CLH1.9
Keswick Community Housing Trust, Cumbria1.8
LATCH, Leeds3.6
Leathermarket Community Benefit Society, Southwark1.151.18
Leeds City Council About CLH1.64.35.4
Leeds Community Homes1.75.6
Lilac, Leeds1.12
Liverpool City Council3.4
London Borough of LewishamAbout CLH
London Community Land Trust, Tower Hamlets1.125.6
London Community Led Housing Hub1.13
North East Community-Led Housing Network2.6
North Ormesby Development Trust, Middlesbrough1.14
North Yorkshire & East Riding Rural Housing Enablers        1.5
Northumberland County Council2.3
Old Oak Housing Co-operative, Carmarthen, Wales1.10
Palace Green Homes, East Cambridgeshire4.7
Preston City Council 4.3
Queens Camel Community Land Trust, Somerset3.6
Redditch Borough Council 1.9
RUSS Community Land Trust, Lewisham1.12
Saffron Lane Neighbourhood Council, Leicester3.3
SCATA Stocksfield, Northumberland1.93.10
South Ribble Borough Council4.3
Stretham and Wilburton CLT, East Cambridgeshire4.4
Walterton & Elgin Community Homes, Westminster1.7
Wessex Community Assets1.91.14
Yarlington Housing GroupAbout CLH

Y PECYN CYMORTH

Pecyn Cymorth i beth yw hwn?

Nod y Pecyn Cymorth hwn yw helpu gweithwyr proffesiynol ym maes tai i gynyddu’r cyflenwad o gartrefi a arweinir gan y gymuned, er mwyn cyfrannu at y gwaith o fynd i’r afael â phroblemau tai’r genedl. Mae’n cyfuno cyfres gynhwysfawr o ddogfennau arbenigol a chyngor, sydd eu hangen i ddatblygu a darparu cynlluniau cartrefi a arweinir gan y gymuned (neu CAG), am y tro cyntaf mewn un lle.

Mae’n cynnig enghreifftiau o ddogfennau ymarferol y gellid eu hariannu a’u darparu, yn ogystal â rhoi astudiaethau achos a chyfeirio, er mwyn sicrhau bod y broses o ddatblygu a darparu cartrefi a arweinir gan y gymuned yn fwy effeithlon, yn gyflymach ac yn haws. Hefyd, mae’n cynnwys deunydd sy’n rhoi’r sector cartrefi a arweinir gan y gymuned, sef sector sy’n tyfu, yn ei gyd-destun, gan roi asesiad o’r achosion busnes a chymdeithasol, a map dangosol o’r broses ar gyfer gwahanol fathau o ddatblygiadau.

Mae’r Pecyn Cymorth yn ategu Community-Led Housing: a Key Role for Local Authorities, a gyhoeddwyd gan Rwydwaith Arloesi’r Cynghorau Cydweithredol ym mis Ionawr 2018, ac sydd ar gael ar y wefan.

Ar gyfer pwy mae’r Pecyn Cymorth?

Mae’r Pecyn Cymorth wedi’i anelu’n bennaf at awdurdodau lleol yng Nghymru a Lloegr sy’n ymwneud â hyrwyddo, cefnogi a datblygu cartrefi a arweinir gan y gymuned, neu a fyddai’n hoffi gwneud hynny, fel rhan o’u strategaethau tai. Hefyd, bydd yn berthnasol i gymdeithasau tai a rhanddeiliaid eraill sy’n cydweithio â chymunedau lleol i ddarparu tai.

Er nad yw wedi’i anelu at fudiadau cymunedol yn benodol, gall y Pecyn Cymorth fod yn ddefnyddiol hefyd i grwpiau sydd â diddordeb mewn mynd ar drywydd cynllun cartrefi a arweinir gan y gymuned, gan y bydd yn eu helpu i ddeall y gofynion a’r prosesau technegol sy’n gysylltiedig â hynny.

Mae nifer o Becynnau Cymorth a Chanllawiau Arfer Da sydd wedi’u hanelu’n benodol at gymunedau a grwpiau lleol, gan gynnwys:

 


Last updated in April 2018