Community First Yorkshire (funding complete)

Community First Yorkshire (formerly called Rural Action Yorkshire) and the North and East Yorkshire Rural Housing Enabler Network (RHE Network) were funded to explore the potential for community-led housing to be part of the solution to the shortage of affordable, good quality housing in rural North Yorkshire and East Riding.

The project’s aim was to increase the number of affordable community led housing schemes in North Yorkshire and East Riding, to develop resources for interested community groups and parish councils and share both the resources and learning across England. Community First Yorkshire achieved these aims and has moved from having no community-led schemes at the start of the project to over 30 interested groups across the area by May 2018.

Community First Yorkshire has increased the knowledge and expertise about community-led housing in the region, which at the beginning of the project was very low. There is now a team of rural housing enablers and other local authority officers able to provide solid support and advice through the whole process of developing and building community-led housing. There is also a team at Community First Yorkshire able to provide ongoing support to community-led housing groups.

The region is now seen as leading the field in terms of its hub development and is tackling barriers and sharing what it has learnt. Community First Yorkshire has created resources that have been disseminated to other community councils across England with the intention of supporting more communities to take forward community-led housing projects. The resources can all be accessed here. Below you can watch a film to learn about the work of this project to expand affordable community-led housing in the region.

Funding for this project was also provided by North Star Housing and the UK Cohousing Network.