The UK is in the middle of a massive housing crisis with an estimated shortfall of around 4.3 million homes. Social housing availability is extremely limited and starter homes average almost £300,000.
The traditional route to a place to live is unachievable for millions of people – but they are being offered an alternative thanks to organisations like Greater Manchester Community Led Homes (GMCLH).
An independent not-for-profit community benefit society since 2021, GMCLH offers a diverse range of housing models, including co-ops, community self-builds, co-housing initiatives, community land trusts and shared ownership schemes.
With £281,000 in grant funding from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, working in partnership with local authorities, GMCLH is in a prime position to deliver. But as project worker Rachel Summerscales explains, there are many obstacles to overcome.
“The main barriers are things like access to land because it is really expensive, especially in Manchester,” she says. “Then there are issues like security of tenure, obtaining finance and the ability to get loans.
“For example, when Homes for Change Co-op [a provider of social housing in Manchester with 75 flats in Hulme] was created in 1987 there was grant support from central government, funds were available and it was far easier to register as a registered provider – not so these days.
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“Now if land comes up access to finance is very difficult. Most of the groups and people we deal with do not have a track record of finance and can’t get loans quickly.”
Summerscales describes how the housing regulator is unwilling to deal with small registered providers, instead preferring to work with huge housing associations – “and though all of them started with good social intentions some have moved very far from their roots.”
GMCLH, she says, provides “an opportunity to bring ownership and control back into the housing system, which overall is controlled by a small number of big volume house builders. It allows for choice and real engagement, Ideally we can supply a pipeline of high quality, healthy homes at truly affordable rates.”
The organisation’s partnership links include Inspiring Housing Community Land Trust, which has just been confirmed as a Registered Provider (RP) – the first community-led housing organisation in Greater Manchester to achieve RP status. This means they will be able to build more homes for social rent; they are currently focussing on Salford.
“It’s been a long hard slog but this means we now have a community-owned RP able to access Homes England funding to improve the viability of schemes and build truly affordable homes for local communities,” she adds.
GMCLH also helped develop Build for Good, a community interest company committed to creating low-energy, high-quality homes designed in partnership with communities. Homes are sold at market value and profits are invested back into the CIC.
Decent homes for rent, however, remain a top priority. Our Front Door – developed in partnership with Shelter and other local grassroots organisations – is a project aiming to transform derelict properties and offer a choice of safe, secure housing for people with lived experience of homelessness or in housing need. The first project will transform a derelict shop and flat in Tyldesley near Wigan with a second in the pipeline.
Other housing co-op ventures supported by GMCLH include Manchester-based Commoners Co-op, who are hoping to turn a Baptist Church site in Fallowfield into communal housing; Middleton Cooperating, in north Manchester, which has just received a £100,000 development grant; and Oldham-based SAWN, a charity empowering vulnerable Black African women, which has recently expanded into offering homes for rent in Chadderton.
“In the last 12 months some of our projects have really got off the ground and the support of councils like Wigan, Salford and Oldham is huge for us as we need institutions with power on board,” says Summerscales.
“Most new builds are currently controlled by about eight big volume builders and it’s not in their best interests to build homes for rent which are truly affordable. The private sector rental market is completely unregulated and overall people have lost all sense of ownership and power. One of the problems in this country is still the aspirational housing idea that owning your own property is the be-all and end all. In Europe people are perfectly happy with a fair rents system.
“For us, it’s about looking for opportunities and we are very keen to get more co-ops on board. It’s also about finance and opportunity and where things really take off is where local councils encourage projects by providing land.”
Another organisation supported by GMCLH is Citrus, a small housing co-op for queer and disabled people based in Manchester and Swansea, which had to find a new way of working when traditional routes to finance failed.
Their barrier around funding was overcome using the ‘loan stock’ model, where investors put in sums of money for a fixed period of time That can then be used to buy, maintain, and alter properties. Investors agree maturation rates and interest rates – typically between 0 and 5% compound interest.)
Currently the co-op has five members – with more on a waiting-list.
“We all have at least one or another axis of marginalisation,” says Citrus representative, Sian Langham. “None of us are currently in a particularly secure housing situation. It’s very difficult to get housing anyway, and barriers are higher for the disabled.”
Last year, the co-op put in offers for two houses; both fell through and the third time round Citrus decided to explore a different model.
“Banks are not geared up to lend to housing co-ops that haven’t already bought something,” they add. “So rather than split our resources we decided to gather up as much loan stock as we could. It’s an incentive for people to do something ethically. They are investing in us as a co-op, not a house. It’s a bit like an ISA.
“We have managed to buy a house in Swansea outright because prices here are the merest fraction of elsewhere. We have now found another property that looks viable in Harpurhey, north Manchester.
Our plan is to provide as much affordable, accessible housing as we can.
Once we have managed to secure a place in Manchester the help of GMCLH will be invaluable.
Along with GMCLH, Citrus has received support from Radical Routes, a long-established network of co-operatives offering advice to fledgling housing co-ops.
“We attended one of the Radical Routes gatherings last year, they helped in sorting documentation, supplying what they call their ‘magic spreadsheet’ for housing co-ops to see if their model is robust, says Langham. “At least one of our investors is from Radical Routes and we know they will support us in the future. We have been very blessed.“
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Radical Routes activist Cath Muller hopes more housing co-ops like Citrus can benefit in the years ahead. “We are keen to put pressure on the building societies and looking for direct investors to become investor members. Interest in housing co-ops has risen but the possibilities have dropped and barriers are enormous. Some councils are better than others, but not that many are very helpful and not many have the capacity to facilitate small community-led groups finding places to live.
“More people turning to alternatives means the profile of housing co-ops is being raised – but it is still a hard sell in a society where individual home ownership is so prized. But the fact is that the more people turn towards it, the more will be successful.”
