We reconnected with Naked House and found we both had two major challenges: the government was trying to ban ‘ground rents’ on the basis that some have been misused. Some larger developers had sold leasehold houses with clauses enabling ground rents to double every 10 years so making the homes expensive and unsaleable. Community Land … More Can housing be affordable?
“My Lord, … we are looking for support within the Church for our small community led housing proposal… The development would pioneer a new form of affordable housing made possible because the Church would retain ownership of the land. Families would be able to own their own homes but not have to buy the land … More Writing to the Bishop
‘Hope for Housing’. The Community Land Trust Conference was just that – a ray of hope in an otherwise hopeless housing market. To understand why this ray of hope is so important one has to realise just how hopeless the ordinary person feels, the feeling of despair at not being in control of one’s destiny, … More Hope for Housing: CLT conference
We began to pick up where we had left off with our ideas of community building. If the Church and Council were looking at marrying the two sites for a larger housing development, then being both public mission landowners surely they should at least consider a community scheme for local families committed to the local … More Building community – could this be key?
It was at this Right to Build Expo that I attended a breakout group session led by Tom Chance, Director of the National Community Land Trust Network. He helped to affirm some of our ideas and gave me reason to believe that looking at pursuing a community led development across the Council and Church plot … More Could we build a community?
It was at this time that I saw an advert for the first ever ‘Right to Build Expo: Unlocking the Potential of Custom & Self Build Housing’. I immediately purchased a ticket and rather amused myself by signing as ‘Director, Fennell and Sons’ – it would make for some interesting conversations when asked what the … More First Right to Build Expo – Concept of ‘Best Value’
Diary of a Wannabe Self Builder 