East Oxford Housing Workshop

Oxfordshire Community Land Trust is holding a workshop about the potential for more community-led affordable housing in East Oxford.   Free tickets are available here (small donation recommended). 

What is community-led housing?

Community-led housing can be housing that's conceived of, planned, designed, owned and/or managed by the local community – rather than being planted in neighbourhoods by developers or even the local authority. The community-led approach empowers local people to decide what kind of housing their neighbourhoods need and how to create it.

The workshop itself:

The workshop will be focused on practical ways of getting community-led affordable housing projects off the ground, and our hope is that it will lead directly to new projects in the area. We will:

• Explore the importance of affordable housing to the strength of our communities and the liveability of our neighbourhoods, considering what happens when key workers, for example, are no longer able to live near their workplaces and social networks.

• Look at inspiring models from elsewhere in the country, discovering how community groups have increased the availability of affordable housing by, for example, bringing empty homes into community ownership, or by building on un- or under-used land – and how they have done so in ways that are sustainable.

• Identify specific opportunities in the local area, working together to build a map of potential buildings and sites in East Oxford.

• Discuss how the Community Land Trust model enables community-led projects, providing a framework for organising, financing, planning, refurbishing/building and managing affordable homes.