Category: News & Events

Homes of Our Own Start Up Grant Funding for New & Emerging Groups

Homes of Our Own has a grant funding programme for new and emerging groups, this set-up funding which will be available to groups that have not received funding from previous community led housing grant programmes in Wiltshire and Swindon.

The grants are to cover community led housing project set-up costs, up to £2,000, including but not limited to:

  • Forming a community organisation;
  • Training sessions for members of the management team;
  • Registration fees for the use of online meeting platforms such as Zoom;
  • Costs associated with community engagement, member recruitment and project consultation, including publicity materials;
  • Costs of incorporation, membership of a national body, registration with the Financial Conduct Authority, registration with the Information Commissioner’s Office and insurance.

More detail of the Start-Up Grant can be found on the resources area of the Homes of Our Own website. Groups who wish to apply for the funding, administered by Wiltshire Council, can do so between April and December 2021 and should email:

CommunityLedHousing@wiltshire.gov.uk for an application form and terms and conditions.

The homes your community needs?

We know that across Wiltshire and Swindon that there is still a shortage of housing that meets the needs of local communities. Despite the pandemic there is no sign that house prices or rents are decreasing – rather the reverse[1]. This can mean that young people and key workers such as health workers, carers and teachers find it difficult to find somewhere they can afford to live in our communities. Primary schools, shops and pubs have been closing because families must move away.

There are now ways in which you can help solve this problem. Community-led housing, whereby communities themselves work out where and how they will meet local housing need, is successfully creating new homes up and down the country. So far across the country over 300 communities have built over 1000 homes, with thousands more in the pipeline. In Wiltshire several towns and villages are on their way to building new homes for local people.

Now in Wiltshire and Swindon, Homes of our Own[2] has been established to help local communities build or provide homes themselves. We believe that people should not be forced to leave their communities because housing to meet the changing needs of individuals and families does not exist.

The Wiltshire & Swindon Community led Housing Hub, known as Homes of our Own, exists to:

  • provide advice and support to community groups on setting up, engaging with local people and finding and securing the right site;
  • bring in the technical expertise required to plan, develop and build homes;
  • help a community build directly or with a development partner;
  • help access the money required to get a scheme to planning and then build it;
  • advise on managing and maintaining the completed homes.

Would you like to learn more about this? If so, we’d welcome you to join us in a special event organised to spread the word about community-led housing, and to hear from a local community who have gone down this path.

There will be explanations of how community-led housing works, a full story of how it’s working elsewhere, and plenty of time for questions and discussion. We look forward to welcoming you to the event!

The event will take place online on Zoom on Thursday 25th February 2021 at 12pm. Get your tickets here.

[1] House prices in Wiltshire rose by over 5% in the 12 months previous to November 2020 according to Zoopla; rents increased by over 6% for the same period in the SW, according to Homelet.

[2] Homes of our Own is a partnership between Wiltshire Community Land Trust, Community First Wiltshire & Swindon, Wiltshire Association of Local Council, Wiltshire Council, and Swindon Council.

Seend Villagers Submit Park Farm Planning Application

Seend Community Land and Asset Trust is pleased to announce that it has submitted its Park Farm planning application for a development of one four-bed self-build house and 10 affordable houses.  The trust is working in partnership with White Horse Housing and Homes of Our Own to enable affordable housing for the long-term benefit of the community.

The development has been designed to achieve the Passivhaus standard, which strives to significantly improve a building’s energy performance and far exceeds current building regulation requirements.

White Horse Housing specialises in building and managing homes in villages throughout Wiltshire, Swindon and surrounding areas.  Belinda Eastland, from White Horse Housing, said:

“We are proud to be the development partner to Seend Community Land and Asset Trust. We have a strong track record of working closely with village communities throughout Wiltshire not only to give local people in housing need access to a quality home they can afford but also to help sustain the wider community in which they are located. You can read more about our work here.”

Homes of Our Own is the Community Led Housing Hub for Wiltshire and Swindon. It supports communities to establish a group, plan community housing projects, source funding and support grant applications.  Lynn Gibson, CEO of Community First, a key partner for the hub, said:

“New housing developments planned by and built for the community are really a fantastic way to proceed. Seend really are a trailblazer for the county and have done a fantastic job. We are so pleased they have now got to this stage in the process and are an exemplary example for other schemes in the future. See our newly launched website  about types of Community Housing and the services we offer.”

George Clarke from Seend Community Land and Asset Trust said:

“We’ve worked really hard with the community to take account of the positive feedback we have had and after more than two years of work are excited to have reached this stage. In the difficult months that lie ahead for the economy the availability of good quality affordable homes in our Parish is likely to prove a life-changing opportunity for somebody or indeed several people here.”

All three partners, together with the scheme architects, PKA Architects Ltd, have attended the four public consultation meetings for the scheme, prior to its submission.  The trust is delighted to share this exciting news about the planning application and look forward to the next stage.

Wiltshire CLT secures an Awards for All Grant to provide help and support for local communities embarking on Neighbourhood Plans.

Help is on the way for rural communities in Wiltshire seeking to get involved in planning the future of their towns and villages. The independent Wiltshire Community Land Trust (WCLT) has recently won a Big Lottery “Awards for All” grant to provide help and support for local communities embarking on Neighbourhood Plans, focusing on local housing problems and needs, and on the mechanisms they can use to ensure delivery. “This is a great opportunity to help local people get to grips with planning the future of their communities “, said WCLT Chair Trevor Cherrett. “ It will enable us to offer advice and guidance through one-to-one planning surgeries and workshops.” Following the very successful Wiltshire Neighbourhood Planning Roadshow organised by Community First in Devizes on the 16th March, WCLT already have several parishes lined up for advice sessions, and this funding will now be able to extend this support. The project will be in operation until March 2017, and the plan is to work closely with key independent bodies in Wiltshire, including Wiltshire Rural Housing Association, Community First, and Wiltshire Association of Local Councils, along with Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough planning authorities. WCLT Board member Cllr Jonathon Seed, Wiltshire Council Cabinet Member for Housing, welcomed the initiative and offered the Council’s support. “Wiltshire Council is keen to address the County’s housing problems and we are equally keen to encourage local communities to get more involved”, he said; “We particularly endorse and support both the Community Land Trust ethos and the exciting work of Wiltshire Community Land Trust.”

Anyone interested in seeking help and advice on local planning, especially with regard to meeting affordable local housing needs, should contact WCLT members listed below:
Chair, Trevor Cherrett: tbcherrett@btinternet.com;
Vice-Chair, Philippa Read: pipanddes@outlook.com;
WCLT Project Support Officer, Anna Maloney: anna@wiltshireclt.org.uk

Community First’s Head of Development, Dave Potts, says: “Community First warmly welcomes the project. This fits in perfectly with our programme of support for rural communities in developing Neighbourhood Plans, and we will be working closely with the WCLT.” The WCLT has been promoting the idea of community–led approaches to local planning for several years, with funding support from the Wiltshire Rural Housing Association. “Community Land Trusts are taking off round the country now, especially since it has become so difficult to provide affordable housing for local needs” said Trevor. “The allocation of £60m in the Budget to help develop CLTs, especially in the South West is a welcome boost”. Community Land Trusts are not just about housing, however. Community shops, pubs, workspaces, nature conservation and play areas are examples of wider social and economic assets that can be developed by communities themselves.