Around £2.5m has been allocated to local groups who can identify local, community led affordable housing projects in the Hambleton, Ryedale and Scarborough areas. The new funding follows the announcement of a new Community Housing Fund at the 2016 Budget, targeted specifically areas most affected by the impact of second and holiday homes.
The fund will encourage the establishment of new Community Land Trusts (CLTs), a form of community-led housing set up and run by ordinary people develop and manage homes as well as other assets important to that community, like community enterprises, food growing or workspaces. The CLT’s main task is to make sure these homes are genuinely affordable, based on what people actually earn in their area, not just for now but for every future occupier.
The announcement was welcomed by local MP Kevin Hollinrake who has been championing in Parliament the need to deliver affordable local homes to rent and buy for local people. He commented,
“This is excellent news for local communities, and particularly for young people who cannot afford to stay in the towns and villages where they grew up in, where they work and where their families still live. As someone who has been lucky enough to live in this constituency all my life, I know very well that local communities are so important for happiness, stability and to maintain the very fabric of our coastal and countryside towns and villages.”
There are now over 225 Community Land Trusts in England and Wales, and the sector has grown six-fold in the last six years. The largest Community Land Trusts have over 1000 members each. Community Land Trusts have developed over 700 permanently affordable homes to date and will have developed a further 3000 homes by 2020.