Cwmpas – Communities Creating Homes

Building the capacity, scale and sustainability of the co-operative and community-led housing sector in Wales.

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Why we are funding this project

This established project will support communities to increase the supply of genuinely affordable, low-carbon community-led homes. Community-led housing has the potential to become a workable mainstream option in Wales. Communities Creating Homes already offers an important package of support to help bring about that outcome and will now also tackle the issue of funding which presents a major challenge for community-led groups by piloting a new finance solution.

Strategic purpose

Build capacity and support, advice and guidance for community-led housing to become a mainstream option for delivering genuinely-affordable homes.

Project description

Since 2019, the Nationwide Foundation has funded Communities Creating Homes to deliver a comprehensive, free-of-charge package of support that helps Welsh co-operative and community-led housing groups through all stages of a housing scheme.

With funding from the Nationwide Foundation and the Welsh government, Cwmpas’s Communities Creating Homes programme has been working with communities and organisations across Wales to support the growth of the co-operative and community-led housing sector, to deliver more affordable housing for people in need.

This new grant, along with co-funding from the Welsh government, will allow the scheme to continue until March 2025. In addition to continuing its existing support work and raising awareness of community-led housing as a viable option, Cwmpas also aims to make more finance available for community-led housing. It will test a £3 million capital pilot fund provided by the Welsh government which will supply straightforward, easy-to-access finance for community-led groups. If this is successful, there is potential for this to become a revolving loan fund.

Back to funding 2016–present