As a route to empowering communities and developing thriving local economies, community ownership of assets, is a policy area which we will be hearing much more of in the future.  "Building Strength Through Community Ownership" highlights the role of the social housing sector in supporting communities to own and manage assets.  Community ownership is not the model for all communities, nor is it the model for all assets. It is one of a range of options available. But there are circumstances when community ownership can add value, and many reasons why the housing sector would want to support it. 

Fundamentally it is a bottom-up approach which works by creating a sense of ownership over what has been regenerated. The case studies of community land trusts, social enterprises and development trusts illustrate examples of assets such as housing stock, land, community centres and open spaces being transferred to the community and managed independently, whether that is as workspace for community businesses, training facilities, affordable housing or a community garden.

The case studies demonstrate how this approach can reduce dependency because local people are steering the transformation of their community.   With an over-riding goal of community empowerment and a thriving local economy, community ownership clearly compliments the work of the housing sector in the North and if embraced with imagination can reap significant rewards. 

Community ownership is now a high profile and dynamic area of government policy and as such is important agenda for the social housing sector to engage with.  Our experience of partnership working and sustainable communities puts us in a prime position to take this agenda forward.

Northern Housing Consortium
Charlotte Howse (Director of Policy and Practice), tel. +44 191 5661000

/11/2007

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