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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they provide to the cooperative housing sector in England, outside of London.

The Government supports the community-led housebuilding sector – of which housing co-operatives are an important part – through the Community Housing Fund. The Fund is delivered outside of London by Homes England. Capital and revenue grants are available to community-based groups wishing to take forward schemes to build locally affordable housing.

The Government has also provided a £6 million grant from the Community Housing Fund to support Community Led Homes: a consortium of the major stakeholder groups (including the Confederation of Co-operative Housing). Community Led Homes is able to award secondary “seedcorn” grants of up to £4000 to community-based groups to enable those groups to establish an appropriately constituted body corporate, such as a housing co-operative. Community Led Homes is also using its grant to develop a network of technical advisors to support community-based groups though the process of taking forward their local housebuilding schemes.

The Community Housing Fund is currently scheduled to close in March 2020. Ministers are considering all budgets in the round and allocations for 2020/21 will be confirmed through a business planning exercise. Allocations for future years will be considered at the forthcoming Budget and Spending Review.