More money and more land needed for London community land trusts and housing co-operatives

The London Assembly Housing Committee has published a report finding that London’s community land trusts and housing cooperatives need more financial support and help accessing land.

The report – Building Community Power: Expanding Cooperative Housing & Community Land Trusts in London – sets out how community land trusts and housing cooperatives offer real opportunities to help address London’s housing crisis in ways that can complement more mainstream forms of housing, delivering homes that are affordable and tailored for the needs of local communities.

But the Committee’s investigation also uncovered challenges including uncertainty over the renewal of the Mayor of London’s Community Housing Fund, the high cost of land in London, and evidence that the barriers to building homes for Black and Global Majority Londoners, and working-class Londoners, can be even harder to overcome in the CLT and co-operative housing sector.

Key recommendations include:

• In the Government’s upcoming spending review, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) should engage with the GLA to identify new funds for housing cooperatives and community land trusts to deliver housing schemes in London.
• The Mayor should identify and provide additional revenue funding to the London Community Led-Housing Hub to enable the Hub to continue to provide support to housing cooperatives and community land trusts.
• The Mayor should direct the further release of Greater London Authority (GLA) Group land for community land trusts and housing cooperatives through the Mayor’s Small Sites Small Builders programme.
• Through the London Community-Led Housing Hub, the GLA’s Housing and Land directorate should work with partners to develop a strategy by the end of 2025-26 to increase the number of community land trusts and housing cooperatives run by and for groups underrepresented in the sector, such as Black and Global Majority Londoners.