This workshop, hosted by Oxfordshire Community Land Trust (OCLT), will focus on the potential for more community-led affordable housing in East Oxford. Please come along to share your own insights, hear from OCLT about how we're working, and draw inspiration from other projects elsewhere in the country. Everyone is welcome to join. Further details below.

What is community-led housing?

Community-led housing can be housing that's conceived of, planned, designed, owned and/or managed by the local community – rather than being planted in neighbourhoods by developers or even the local authority. The community-led approach empowers local people to decide what kind of housing their neighbourhoods need and how to create it.

The workshop

The workshop will be focused on practical ways of getting community-led affordable housing projects off the ground, and our hope is that they will lead directly to new projects in the area. We will:

• Explore the importance of affordable housing to the strength of our communities and the liveability of our neighbourhoods, considering what happens when key workers, for example, are no longer able to live near their workplaces and social networks.

• Look at inspiring models from elsewhere in the country, discovering how community groups have increased the availability of affordable housing by, for example, bringing empty homes into community ownership, or by building on un- or under-used land – and how they have done so in ways that are sustainable.

• Identify specific opportunities in the local area, working together to build a map of potential buildings and sites in East Oxford.

• Discuss how the Community Land Trust model enables community-led projects, providing a framework for organising, financing, planning, refurbishing/building and managing affordable homes.

Accessibility

The venue is wheelchair accessible. Please contact josh@oclt.org.uk for further accessibility details.

Funding

We're grateful to Oxford City Council, who awarded us £300 towards the cost of the series of workshops of which this is the first.