Community Led Housing for a "fairer and more just world"

From Vienna to Stirchley was an event that took place on 13 March at the Priory Rooms Conference Centre. Attendees heard how the West Midlands Urban Community Homes (WMUCH) is celebrating its progress made towards 5% of West Midlands homes built to be community led by 2031. They also heard from from visiting speakers from Austria about a programme which has enabled 40 Collaborative housing (similar to community led housing) projects to progress across the city of Vienna.

Many thanks to BVSC for hosting this West Midlands Urban Community Homes (WMUCH) event at Priory Rooms on Monday evening (March 13th). It will be excellent to move forward together on environment and energy and tackling multiple disadvantage in partnership with BVSC’s networks. Thanks to Elizabeth Goodchild for making the connections with our work to help community led housing to flourish in the West Midlands (see panel below on meaning of community led housing).

The first theme of the evening was to celebrate the progress made by the WMUCH hub towards 5% of West Midlands homes built to be community led by 2031. First we heard from Eddy Morton about our aims, strategic approach, challenges, solutions and outcomes and then we met some of the groups we are working with. Beatrice Hughes introduced the fabulous Stirchley Cooperative Development project for 39 affordable homes and three worker coop business premises which breaks ground in the next few months. Christabell Amoakoh shared the vision for the High Life project in Coventry to provide live, learn and work for young adults aged 18 to 30 at risk of homelessness and young people leaving care. Eddy talked about the car free Stourbridge Powerhuis project for 23 homes, shared workspace and renewable energy.

The other key theme for the event showcased WMUCH’s policy influencing role and our ongoing learning from the collaborative housing sector in Vienna. Our visiting speakers Ernst Gruber and Richard Lang provided a policy overview of Vienna’s developer competition and land release programme which has enabled 40 Collaborative housing (similar to community led housing) projects to progress across the city since 2010, housing over 1200 households in affordable self-managed homes. Their clear graphics and photos captured the process and outcomes that this progressive policy has produced, particularly in building stable and outward looking communities in large new neighbourhoods. These outcomes were only possible through collaboration between community groups, housing associations and the city authority. A land and grant allocation system gives emphasis to social and environmental criteria alongside cost and value for money and provides resources for community capacity to be built for groups to manage their own projects. Uncannily these are the very aims that WMUCH has been focusing on! A key take away for us was that Vienna has put community led housing at the heart or urban development and we can too. To promote these ideas further we held a series of meetings between Ernst and Richard and Councillors across the region.

An excellent Q and A session provided a relaxed and positive setting for groups to learn from each other and make new connections in our first face to face event since Covid. Eddy Morton captured the spirit of the evening in describing the contribution community led housing can make to a fairer and more just world and promoting hope for the future. Thanks to BVSC for making this possible.

More information about the event including slides can be downloaded at www.wmuch.org.uk

David Mullins, WMUCH Board Member

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