Six organisations including the Dumfries and Galloway Small Communities Housing Trust and the Highlands Small Communities Housing Trust will use the funding to provide support and advice to community-led housing groups.

The Nationwide Foundation said it recognises that, while there is a growing appetite for community-led housing and more communities are mobilising to turn this into a reality, there is a desperate lack of support which can stall or even halt promising and much-needed projects.

The organisations funded by the Nationwide Foundation will be offering the information, support, advice and technical expertise that is needed to progress schemes. The focus will be on ensuring that community groups can effectively and more easily deliver homes that are both decent and affordable and meet the needs of their communities.

Community-led housing allows groups to build affordable, good quality homes in their own communities, in places where they are really needed and are for people who really need them. They are often in areas where houses prices are high and many of the existing properties are second homes.

The Scottish Government’s support of community-led housing has been given a substantial boost with support from the Rural Housing Fund. It is with this growing demand in mind, that the Nationwide Foundation has given significant funding.

Meanwhile, in December 2017, Alok Sharma MP, then the housing and planning minister, announced that the government was making available funding in England for the second year of the Community Housing Fund. This investment was much hoped-for in the community-led housing sector and, consequently, adds vigour to the sector, and boosts many of the projects that were started with the first year’s funds.

Of the six projects receiving funding from the Nationwide Foundation, two are providing support across England to help the community-led housing sector to grow, by standardising provision and ensuring wider reach. The National Community Land Trust Network will be establishing enabling support in places where it is not yet available, as well as professionalising the quality of advice that is given. In conjunction, Action with Communities in Rural England will deliver training to a network of advisors, raising their awareness and improving their knowledge of community-led housing.

The four other projects that the Nationwide Foundation is funding are regional support hubs which will all be able to strengthen and diversify the services that they currently offer. They are:

The Nationwide Foundation’s chief executive, Leigh Pearce, said “We envisage a future where community-led housing is thriving and where many more people, especially those in housing need, are living in homes that have been created by the community. Yet, we know that the availability of help can make or break whether a much-needed scheme can get off the ground. We want to ensure that community groups wanting to deliver community-led housing can realise their vision and ultimately enable local people to establish settled lives, close to family and employment.”