More affordable housing in Oxfordshire

A BBC Oxford news article today reports that an industry expert has argued for more affordable housing in Oxfordshire. Stewart Lilley, former president of the National Association of Estate Agents, said Oxfordshire district councils were averse to granting planning permission, and that many parish councillors were also unsupportive of affordable housing developments. 'It's down to the local authority,' he argued, 'in not allowing enough planning permission through the planning system.'


Read the article here

Co-housing feature in The Guardian

The profile of co-housing has been raised by a feature in the money section of the Saturday Guardian:

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The group featured consists of eight people of varying ages and backgrounds who have bought a ten bedroom former children's home in east London, with planning permission for change of use. The group paid £620,000 for the property in Walthamstow, with the purchase financed by loans from Co-operative & Community Finance, the Co-operative Loan Fund as well as other sources. But the bulk of the money came in the form of a 75% mortgage from the Yorkshire-based Ecology building society.

The Drive housing co-op (thedrive.coop) will own the property as a registered not-for-profit body, but will provide accommodation on a rental basis to its members. Each member will have a single £1 share in The Drive, and will not gain or lose financially from changes in the value of the property.

Gifford Trust site

The Gifford Trust have approached the Beacon Project in relation to the potential for co-housing on their development site adjacent to the Spendlove Centre in Charlbury. The Project welcomes this development as a real step forward in the provision of co-housing or affordable housing in Charlbury, and have looked in detail at the site to see if it meets the needs of the Project's current membership. Detailed drawings were prepared and presented to the Project members for discussion (see above). After extensive discussion the Project response to the Gifford Trust was that the site did not quite meet the needs of the Project in terms of number and range of potential housing units, space for shared garden, lack of potential for self-building, lack of space for dedicated live/work studio, or space for energy generation.

A registered company

Beacon Project Charlbury was registered as a company limited by guarantee in March 2011. The Project members will become shareholders of the company. The formation of a company is an essential first step towards the financial and administrative organisation of a co-housing group.