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 husband Peter spent Christmas working up a scheme for the two sites to house 5-7 units, to make the most of the site. He was also formulating a proposal to convince the church that, rather than sell off the ‘family silver’ to fund philanthropic ‘mission’, community housing was, in fact, a mission purpose in … More Community Housing is mission
‘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
Naked House encouraged us to seek out Peter George, Head of the Regeneration team at Enfield. He was a pioneering and visionary leader, although very busy. Perhaps we could make contact and look to do something on a smaller scale as a self build community initiative? The benefit of having a similar narrative, Stephen said, … More Community-led homes is best value
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?
We did however need a partner. I had recently become friends with a mother whose daughter was in my son’s class who was in a similar position to ourselves. I had bumped into her on several occasions outside the school gates and we had discussed our housing dilemmas. She longed for a home of their … More Partnering up
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 