- Lewisham, and London more generally, faces severe housing pressures across all tenures. A combination of historic and on-going lack of new supply, welfare reform and rising property prices and rents has led to rapidly increasing demand in all tenures
- In order to respond to this increased demand and to provide a greater range and volume of housing options to enable the Council to meet its statutory obligations, officers are pursuing a wide range of new housing development approaches in order to meet demand. One such approach is working with Community Land Trusts (CLT)
- Community Land Trusts (CLTs) are a way of providing genuinely and permanently affordable new homes either for rent or low cost ownership, and as such offer one model to address the growing gap in the housing market between people who qualify for social housing and people who can afford to buy their own home. Community-led development also has the potential, in time, to diversify the ways that new homes are created.
- Schemes of this nature also have the potential to offer a range of ancillary benefits including that:
- New projects tend to be built more densely when they are designed by community groups, as they tend to include shared rather than private open spaces, thereby maximising the efficient use of land
- Community-led schemes can create a greater sense of ownership over places, generated by people co-designing their homes and shared spaces
- Schemes of this nature tend to be designed with a much stronger focus on long-term environmental sustainability
- CLTs are the only affordable housing model that has not been affected by wider policy changes such as the 1% rent reduction, or the extension of the right to buy regulations
- The Housing Strategy 2015-2020 has a commitment to work with our communities and partners in order to maximise our ability to deliver well defined and affordable new homes for Lewisham and an objective to work with and support resident-led development. Lewisham is one of the leading authorities in the country on working in partnership with CLT’s on affordable housing developments
- The Council is already working with The Rural Urban Synthesis Society Community Land Trust (RUSS) on a site in Church Grove which will provide 33 affordable homes in the borough. A further potential development site for a CLT has been identified in Brasted Close, Sydenham. Following permission from the Mayor and Cabinet in March 2016, officers have been working with the London Community Land Trust and Lewisham Citizens to develop plans for the site which currently has 17 garages
Useful Links
The Cabinet Meeting Document
Published in April 2018
