Sadiq Khan

Sadiq Khan provides funding for self-build community scheme



Sadiq Khan has awarded almost £1m to a south London community group to help it deliver social rented and other genuinely affordable homes for local residents and workers.


The Rural Urban Synthesis Society (RUSS) – a Lewisham-based community land trust – has received £988,000 from the mayor’s innovation fund to build 33 homes on Church Grove in Ladywell.

The site was gifted to RUSS by Lewisham Council in 2016.

Five of the homes will be allocated by Lewisham Council, while RUSS will retain at least 20% equity in the remaining 28 properties, ensuring that they cannot be sold on the open market and can only ever be transferred on to members on the RUSS waiting list.

The homes on Church Grove – which will range from one-bedroom flats to four-bedroom homes – will be partly self-built by residents, RUSS members, apprentices and volunteers from the wider community.

Khan has set a new target to identify a pipeline of community-led housing schemes by 2021, with capacity to deliver at least 1,000 homes.

“To tackle the capital’s housing crisis, we need to think beyond large developers – councils, small builders and community groups must play a vital role too,” said the mayor of London.

“Community-led housing puts residents at the heart of the process, giving them a voice and the chance to contribute to designing their community.

“This is exactly the type of project my innovation fund was created to support, and I’m delighted we could help RUSS members in delivering much-needed, high-quality social and other genuinely affordable homes.

“I look forward to following the progress of this project and would welcome further bids from parties interested in the future of community-led development in London.”



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