Homes in Community Hands: Year Three Evaluation

In 2017 Power to Change launched its Homes in Community Hands programme, which sought to boost the development of community led housing (CLH). This would focus primarily on five urban areas across the country. The programme has provided funding to help plan and develop affordable housing projects to meet community needs. It has also provided grants to enabler organisations in the five areas and contributed to other investment and funding mechanisms.

Through this activity the Homes in Community Hands programme has played a significant role in the growth of the CLH sector in England. The programme has made grants in excess of £5.1m, providing 60 individual grants to 44 different organisations. This funding can be categorised into three types; grants to CLH projects, grants to CLH enabler organisations, and grants to/investments in other funding and finance mechanisms. The programme has supported - in varied ways and to different extents - the planned development of between 4,000–5,000 homes. The vast majority of these are yet to be completed however, and as we show in this report, there are a number of factors which may hinder their development.