Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has taken recent steps to support the growth of community land trusts.

The Government is committed to supporting Community Land Trusts and other providers of community housing. The National Planning Policy Framework sets out the Government's planning policies for England and how these are expected to be applied, and was most recently revised in December 2023. The National Planning Policy Framework now includes several measures that will support the diversification of the housing market, including the growth of the community-led housing sector. These new measures include:

• A new community-led housing exception sites policy to encourage local authorities to support the development of community-led sites that deliver affordable housing to meet local need;
• encouragement to local planning authorities to seek opportunities to support small sites to come forward for community-led development for housing;
• greater emphasis on the role that community-led development can have in supporting the provision of housing in rural areas; and
• a definition of “community-led developments”, which will help planning authorities provide support for local proposals for community-led housing development;

Community-based groups (or their partner organisations) who are registered as providers of social housing may apply for capital grant through the £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme (AHP).

In addition, in 2023, we provided £3 million to support a social finance fund to provide equity and loan finance for community-led housing schemes across England. This fund is expected to support the delivery of 1587 homes over ten years.