New £2m fund for affordable housing

New £2m fund for affordable housing

News

A new £2m fund has been established to enable Community Land Trusts (CLTs) to build permanently affordable homes.

The fund is expected to help 30 fledgling CLTs develop in the next four years and lead to the creation of around 150 new affordable homes in areas of housing need across the UK. It will give CLTs support during their early development phase and loan capital for housing development to lever investment from commercial sources.

CLTs are organisations that create affordable housing, to buy and to rent, by securing low cost land and building homes that remain partly owned by the communities on a permanent basis.

The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Tudor Trust have provided £1.75m. Venturesome, the social investment arm of the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF). will handle day-to-day operation of the fund and is underwriting an additional £250,000 towards the £2m.

Dawn Austwick, chief executive of  Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, said, “Access to affordable homes is a pressing problem for many communities. We hope that the establishment of this fund will open up new opportunities for financing rural housing and ultimately encourage others into this fledgling market.”

For more information visit www.communitylandtrust.org.uk.