East Cambridgeshire District Council

Overview

East Cambridgeshire is a rural District Council with high housing demand and huge pressure on house prices, arising from the proximity to the City of Cambridge. It faces significant challenges in providing affordable homes due to high land values and the rural nature of the District. The Council has been actively promoting and supporting community-led housing for the past five years, using the community land trust approach.

The District Council is currently supporting community-led housing through:

  • A strong corporate commitment: community-led housing – ‘genuinely affordable homes by local people for local people’ - is one of six priorities in the District’s Corporate Plan

 

East Cambs Table

  • Leadership: The current Leader of the Council acts as the community-led housing champion
  • Revenue funding: the Council has provided start up grants of up to £5000 for new community land trusts and a £40,000 revolving loan fund to help with pre-development costs. Loans through the Fund are repayable on successful completion of a scheme, but are written off if it is unsuccessful 
  • Enabling support: the Council has employed a Community Land Trust Advisor since 2013. It now has three advisors, both employed through the Council’s trading arm. They provide free specialist advice and support throughout the development process
  • Supportive planning policies: the Council has included a policy within its Local Plan which encourages community led housing development, with a presumption in favour of genuinely community led projects which meet certain criteria. It also has a Supplementary Planning Document and Guidance Notes specifically for community land trusts and does not charge them for pre-planning advice
  • Development partner: the Council has a development company (Palace Green Homes) which partners with communities keen to set up and develop through a community land trust approach. It makes use of the large amount of experience and expertise on CLTs and CLT development within the company

Useful links

The CCIN case study

The Council’s Community Housing Programme Manager can be contacted at emily.mulvaney@cambridgeshirepeterborough-ca.gov.uk

 

Published in April 2018

Get support

For help & advice contact your local enabling hub or relevant national support organisation

Our partners

Community Led Homes is a partnership project between the Confederation of Co-operative Housing, Locality, the National Community Land Trust Network and UK Cohousing . These organisations work together to make it easier for communities to access support and build a lasting community led housing movement.

CohousingCLTCCHLocality