Community-led housing backed with £1m from Nationwide Foundation

The Nationwide Foundation is awarding over £1 million to support the growth of community-led housing to enable the sector to deliver more decent, affordable homes for people in need.Six organisations including the Dumfries and Galloway Small Communities Housing Trust and the Highlands Small Communities Housing Trust will use the funding to provide support and advice to community-led housing groups.The Nationwide Foundation said it recognises that, while there is a growing appetite for community-led housing and more communities are mobilising to turn this into a reality, there is a desperate lack of support which can stall or even halt promising and much-needed projects.The organisations funded by the Nationwide Foundation will be offering the information, support, advice and technical expertise that is needed to progress schemes. The focus will be on ensuring that community groups can effectively and more easily deliver homes that are both decent and affordable and meet the needs of their communities.Community-led housing allows groups to build affordable, good quality homes in their own communities, in places where they are really needed and are for people who really need them. They are often in areas where houses prices are high and many of the existing properties are second homes.The Scottish Government’s support of community-led housing has been given a substantial boost with support from the Rural Housing Fund. It is with this growing demand in mind, that the Nationwide Foundation has given significant funding.