Cwmpas – Answering the right questions

Casey Edwards and Claire White report on collaboration to highlight the important questions that need answering to support the growth of Community-led Housing in Wales.

Interest in the community-led housing (CLH) sector in Wales is continuing to grow. Communities Creating Homes, the Welsh hub providing information, advice and guidance to CLH groups, delivered by Cwmpas, is supporting over 40 communities across Wales to take the lead on housing solutions where they live. These range from community land trusts to co-operative housing, cohousing, intentional communities and more. Every potential CLH scheme is unique but what they all have in common is that they recognise and want to contribute to solving the affordable housing crisis by putting community at the heart of development.

We believe that CLH is part of the solution to tackling the housing crisis here in Wales. Not only can it deliver affordable homes that people need, but it can also create cohesive and resilient communities, where local people are empowered to make decisions about the places that they live.

Welsh Government has shown its support for the sector by including CLH in the Programme for Government and funding the Communities Creating Homes programme to deliver enabling support, as well as confirming that affordable community-led homes contribute to the target of delivering 20,000 social homes by 2026. In February, we worked with Welsh Government to update Planning Policy Wales to include CLH organisations as vehicles for delivering affordable housing – a vital change. It has also set up a commission to look at how we can improve community ownership of land and assets – all things that we have lobbied and campaigned for.

However, this political will hasn’t always translated into support at a more local level. CLH groups are still having to battle throughout every stage of development because local stakeholders are unaware or unsure of the role of CLH in delivering affordable housing.

Influencing policy makers at a local and national level is a key element of the Communities Creating Homes programme, but we cannot do it alone. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Cardiff University and the Bevan Foundation to conduct research into the changes needed to grow the CLH sector in Wales.

Since November 2023, we have been collaborating with researchers at Cardiff University and aspiring co-housing group Co-op Dan Do to bring together CLH groups, the housing sector, Welsh Government, and the private sector for facilitated workshops sparking new conversations about CLH. Each workshop explored different, interconnected, themes and prioritised contributions from people with lived experience. Below is a preview of some of the questions that have emerged:

Workshop 1 – The benefits and affordability of CLH development

Exploring the benefits of CLH to address affordable housing need in Wales amidst a housing and environmental crisis, workshop 1 gave rise to the following questions:

1. How can we continue raise more awareness of CLH with different stakeholders and community groups in Wales?
2. How can we collate and share positive CLH case studies that demonstrate the variety and scale of potential CLH development in Wales for stakeholders and community groups interesting in starting their own projects?
3. How can we reimagine affordability and bring forward innovation to create new CLH neighbourhoods?
4. How can CLH be scaled up and contribute to addressing the housing crisis in Wales?

Workshop 2 – Land and finance in CLH development

The second workshop explored planning and the processes involved in finding, securing, and financing land for CLH development. The following questions emerged from the discussions:

1. How can the public sector support CLH development with holistic funding opportunities leading to the creation of affordable homes where they would otherwise be out of reach?
2. Can the public sector facilitate aspiring CLH developers to access information about potential development sites?
3. How can more opportunities be created for CLH groups to share their experiences and the expertise they have developed with each other?
4. How can statutory bodies be encouraged to engage positively with the CLH sector and create champions who will help them understand the systems they must work within?

Workshop 3 – Design and governance of CLH developments

The final workshop of the series explored the physical, political, and social aspects of the design of CLH projects in Wales inclusive of their decision-making processes and the different elements of their physical design. Questions arising included:

1. What tools can help support good decision-making and governance practice in CLH groups and how does this change as groups move closer to developing and eventually living in the homes created?
2. How can we motivate design professionals, practitioners, and the public sector to become familiar with and accepting of CLH norms and values so taking them into consideration when a project is being developed?
3. In what ways can design professionals translate the aims, norms, and values of CLH groups into positive placemaking and a physical environment that embraces inclusivity and community?
4. How might CLH developments pay it forward to positively impact their neighbours, wider community, future development, and local economies

One of the workshops held in collaboration with Cardiff University and Co-op Dan Do

Over the summer the team at Cardiff University have been continuing to develop a future research agenda based on the topics raised and draft a report to be shared. A dissemination event in the Autumn will bring together these themes with a final report reflecting on the process and defining an ongoing research agenda to support current and future CLH development.

We’re also working with the Bevan Foundation on research to better understand how we can unlock the supply of affordable land, which we see as key to increasing the supply of affordable community-led homes. The aims of the research are to:

• Understand why land supply is a significant barrier to the development of new social and community-led homes
• Show the potential of land held by different types of social and public owners to enable development
• Encourage the Welsh Government to recognise the benefits of the development of socially- and publicly owned land for social and community-led housing and to adopt a more strategic approach.

Throughout the Summer, the Bevan Foundation has been exploring the human cost of land shortages, analysing data, and speaking with key stakeholders involved in developments. A report sharing the early findings will be released in Autumn, alongside a roundtable discussion to focus on solutions and next steps.

We’re looking forward to working with the new government to implement the findings of these research projects, as well as influencing manifestos ahead of the 2026 election to ensure that community-led housing is at the heart of providing affordable homes that meets local need.

Interested in hearing more or know the solution to some of these questions/challenges? Get in touch at co-op.housing@cwmpas.coop.

Casey Edwards is community-led housing programme manager and Claire White is community-led housing enabler at Cwmpas