Thames Valley Community-Led Housing Festival 10-14 May 2021 Image of house and people

Addressing the need for affordable housing in Bucks: find out about community-led housing in the Thames Valley

Access to affordable housing is key to the future of our communities in Buckinghamshire but sadly it remains beyond the reach of many. One way to ensure secure, good quality homes is through community-led housing where local people solve local housing problems by building genuinely affordable homes.

If you have would like to know more about community-led housing – from how to start your own local project to building sustainable homes – and to hear from existing projects in the Thames Valley, join Collaborative Housing at its Thames Valley Community-Led Housing Festival on 10-14 May 2021.

Bringing together different groups to meet, learn from one another and enhance local community-led housing, the Festival’s itinerary is:

  • Monday 10 May @ 5 – 6.30pm/ Collaborative housing in the Thames Valley: a chance to hear directly from successful Thames Valley collaborative housing projects and how they got their community-led housing schemes off the ground.
  • Tuesday 11 May @ 5 – 6.30pm/ Justice in community-led housing – housing for everyone: marginalised communities are often locked out of housing solutions because of the historic ways in which mainstream housing campaigns have been organised. Come and be inspired by groups that have self-organised to meet their needs.
  • Wednesday 12 May @ 5 – 6.30pm/ Community-led housing after the pandemic: join the discussion on what the pandemic has taught us about community and how community-led housing can build on community strengths and provide a solution for community needs.
  • Thursday 13 May @ 10am-12pm & 1-2pm/ Scaling-up community-led housing to meet our housing needs: this session will explore opportunities to deliver large-scale community-led housing and enabling self-build. The event will be broken into two sessions: Delivering Community-led Housing (10am – 12pm) and Local Authority’s role in enabling community-led housing at large-scale on strategic sites (1pm – 2pm).
  • Friday 14 May @ 10am-12pm/ The positive challenge: Designing sustainable housing with communities: looking at housing which has low running costs while addressing the climate emergency, take part in the conversation between local designers, architects and developers on how this can be achieved in new-build housing schemes as well as retro-fit properties.
  • Friday 14 May @ 1-2pm/ Closing remarks & Virtual coffee networking event: a round up of key points and lessons from the week supported by focused breakout rooms for you to join and network.

If you or your organisation is involved in or interested in community-led housing, you can register for any of the free events via The Thames Valley Community-Led Housing Festival Eventbrite page, and if you would like to share information within your own networks, have a look at the free resources which are available:

You can also keep up-to-date with Festival news and community-led housing in Thames Valley by following Collaborative Housing on social media.

Stephanie

VCSE & Community Development Officer, Community Impact Bucks

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