CLH Choices

Housing Co-operatives involve groups of people who provide and collectively manage affordable homes for themselves as tenants or shared owners.  An example in Herefordshire is Earthworm co-operative Housing in Leintwardine. The large house and outbuildings on 7 acres of land is being renovated by ten residents. A housing co-operative is a “non-hierarchical property managagement company”. If you have never heard of “co-operatives’ before, you might want to pop over to here for a very general outline of what it means to be a co-operative. Follow the link for more information on Earthworm.

You can find out mor information from Confederation of Co-operative Housing

Cohousing schemes involve groups of like-minded people who come together to provide self-contained, private homes for themselves,  In addition they but manage their scheme together and share activities, often in a communal spaces Canon Frome Court near Ledbury is one example of such a scheme which celebrated its 40h anniversary last year.  It has 18 leasehold homes, 1 rental and 1 shared ownership.

You can find more information UK Cohousing Network

Self-help housing projects involve small, community-based organisations bringing empty properties back into use, often without mainstream funding, with a strong emphasis on construction skills training and support.

LATCH (Leeds Action To Create Homes Limited) was established in 1989 and brings empty and run-down homes back into use. It refurbishes the houses with unemployed volunteers, helping them to gain skills, confidence and work experience. When the homes are fully modernised, they provide supported housing for people who are homeless or in housing need.

More on self help housing  - self-help-housing.org

Community self-build involves groups of local people in housing need building homes for themselves with external support and managing the process collectively. The West Street project began in 2010, as a collaboration with Knightstone Housing Association and GCP Chartered Architects. The scheme trained homeless ex-service personnel and in the process built a community whose members gained new skills and qualifications and met like-minded people. The Homes and Communities Agency provided £660,000 of funding to help kick-start the project, which features fourteen homes for social rent.

A similar project started locally in Leominster in 2019

You can find more information from Community Self Build Agency

Custom build is when people are able to specify an individual home through a more ‘hands-off’ journey, where an enabling developer delivers a spectrum of services – from just creating a serviced-plot right through to delivering a complete bespoke turnkey home for an individual or group of individuals. A good example of this is Bristol CLT at Fishponds.

More on this:  National custom and self build association