Merseyside groups looking to start their own community-led housing projects can now apply for help through a new charity scheme.

National organisation Locality has launched its Locality Early Stage Support Programme in response to what it sees as a lack of affordable homes and increasingly high property prices.

The charity aims to help groups take their first steps on the path to creating homes for their local communities and ensure affordable homes are provided for people who need them.

The new programme also looks to bridge the current gap in funding for groups at the early stage of setting up their projects and will support 22 groups to get started in building homes for their communities.

Tony Armstrong, chief executive of Locality (pictured), says: “This new programme will help people to take back control of one of the most important issues facing us in the UK today.

“The housing crisis is on everyone’s minds as people are priced out of buying their own homes, paying exorbitant rents in the private sector or forced to wait for years on the social housing register.

The project has been funded with a grant of £160,000 from the Nationwide Foundation.

Gary Hartin, programme manager at the Nationwide Foundation, says: “We are firm believers that community-led housing offers a meaningful way to create more genuinely affordable housing.

“Our ambition is to see it more widely used and acknowledged as a valuable tool to help tackle the desperate shortage of affordable and decent homes. Our grant to Locality will lead to the identification of the most effective ways to make this happen.”

To apply for the Locality Early Stage Support Programme click here

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