Community organisations trying to build affordable homes in the rural towns and villages of Somerset and Dorset are to get valuable business support from a new partnership.
Resonance and Wessex Community Assets are today revealing details of a two year partnership to pilot a support business for Community Land Trusts across Somerset and Dorset. The 'action research' project is being supported by the Carnegie UK Trust, which promotes sustainable rural communities, using funding secured from the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Paul Sander-Jackson, Executive Director of Wessex Community Assets, says there's a huge challenge ahead:
'We are very excited to be awarded a key role in stimulating and supporting communities to tackle the urgent problem of providing housing that is affordable for people who want to live and work in our towns and villages.'
Steve Watson, Resonance, formally CEO of Somer Housing Association, will be leading the technical assistance team with outreach support from Alison Ward of Wessex Community Assets. Initially the team are working to esablish relationships with key partners operating in and around the Dorset and Somerset area and identify communites that have both the housing need and capacity on the ground to develop a community Land Trust.
Daniel Brewer, Director of Resonance, says the partnership creates an opportunity to put ideas into action for the people of rural Dorset and Somerset.
'There are a number of critical success factors we are looking to test, but we are currently convinced that having community entrepreneurs with focus and tenacity is one of them. Our role will be to walk with these key individuals to navigate the community development journey by providing expertise in project management and raising funds.'
Carnegie UK Trust awarded the contract to Resonance and Wessex Community Assets because of the team's experience in affordable housing, community development and financing social enterprise. The project has been devised on the basis of experience gained across the UK in finding community-led solutions to meet housing need, including practical examples from the South West region and the regional support of the Cornwall Community Land Trust project.
Kate Braithwaite, Director, Rural Programme at Carnegie UK Trust, said:
'We want to demonstrate that the success in Cornwall, Northumberland and other regions can be replicated, built upon and rolled out across the UK.'
'Our objective is to provide a mechanism for communities to build homes that are affordable for local people and simultaneously enabling them to have greater influence and control over their environment.'
Initial funding for the project is for 2 years by which time it is hoped that the umbrella organisation will become self-supporting through fees charged to successful developments.