Lewisham holds a special place in the history of British community housing. In the 1960s, the Lewisham Family Squatting Association pioneered short-life housing and in 1973, Sanford Housing Co-op in Deptford became Britain’s first purpose-built housing co-operative.
In the 1980s, Lewisham Council provided sites and showed how a self-build approach could enable people with no construction background to build 27 homes on 5 small sites. A housing association, CHISEL, developed Nubia Way, the UK’s first Black housing co-op and 4 other self-build projects for social rent demonstrated that self-build was never just about bricks and mortar; it gave people a say in the design, construction, and management of where they lived.
In the 1990’s institutional interest in community housing waned as housing associations became more commercial but the underlying demand for safe, comfortable and economic to run homes at a price people could afford never disappeared.
RUSS was founded as a Community Land Trust (CLT) with the aim to create a model for sustainable neighbourhoods and in 2023 completed 36 low-energy, mixed-tenure homes and in the same year London CLT completed 11 flats for discounted sale.
The RUSS development demonstrates –
- Permanent Affordability: CLTs remove homes and land from the speculative market by prices and rents pegged to local incomes and protected into the future.
- True Mixed development: Delivering a mix of social rent, shared ownership, fixed-equity discount sales and rooms for rent in shared dwellings—not just the profitable small apartments for sale typical in commercial developments.
- High Environmental Standards: Highly insulated, all-electric homes with solar panels and heat pumps drastically cut living costs and drive down environmental impacts.
- Resident Agency & Social Value: Collective design, self-build and management teach trade and organisation skills and research confirms that shared endeavour create pride, self-confidence and neighbourhood stability.
Community housing offers urban densification instead of car-dependent suburban sprawl or windswept tower blocks by regenerating underused land within existing council estates. A review by RUSS showed that Lewisham alone could create around 3,350 new community-led homes alongside new community amenities and shops and upgraded landscapes. Across London, this approach could support 150,000 new affordable homes without encroaching on open green belt.
Community-led housing is not the only solution, but it is a necessary complement to other provision. By trusting residents with the tools, land, finance and collective ownership to shape their surroundings, Lewisham can lead the way in building resilient, affordable, and thriving neighbourhoods fit for the future.
