The Community Led Housing Alliance
Across Scotland, community organisations are providing permanently affordable, high-quality homes which meet local housing needs.
Community led housing is highly responsive to local circumstances and rooted in deep and extensive community engagement. It brings land and buildings into community control, and helps the whole community to thrive.
The Community Led Housing Alliance is a national network of organisations involved in community led housing. It was initiated in Summer 2025 and now has around 70 local members, including development trusts, social enterprises, community councils and local charities. The Alliance is co-ordinated by South of Scotland Community Housing and Communities Housing Trust, in collaboration with Community Land Scotland and Development Trusts Association Scotland, with funding support from the Nationwide Foundation.
The Community Led Housing Alliance enables community housing providers to come together, learn from each other and share experiences and knowledge.
In 2025, we carried out the first ever Census of Community Led Housing in Scotland, demonstrating that community led housing is the country’s fastest growing housing sector. Communities have already provided hundreds of affordable homes, especially in rural areas, islands and towns where there is a shortfall due to local failures in the housing system. Based on the evidence of projects already in the pipeline, as many as 1,700 more community led homes could be provided in the next five years, if the right support is provided.
Together, we have developed a vision for community led housing and proposals for how this can be made a reality, delivering more affordable homes and securing the benefits for people in housing need and for communities at large. We will publish a manifesto ahead of the 2026 Scottish Parliament election and campaign for greater support for community led housing from the next Scottish Government and Parliament.
If you are a local organisation involved in community led housing, please get in touch! We’d love to hear from you.
Updates
10th February 2026
The Alliance releases its campaign film!
This short film summarises the potential of community led housing in Scotland, and how the Scottish Government can help communities to deliver more affordable homes.
Produced by Open Aye with graphics from Bold Studio, with thanks to Nith Valley Leaf Trust and the residents of Closeburn.
10th February 2026
Community Led Housing Alliance publishes its 2026 manifesto!
The Community Led Housing Alliance has published its manifesto for the 2026 Scottish Parliamentary Elections, Back Scotland’s Communities to Provide More Homes.
The main message for Scotland’s politicians and Government is: “to tackle the housing emergency equitably – meeting the affordable housing needs of people everywhere in Scotland – it is vital that you fully back community led housing.”
Communities have a pipeline of existing projects which could deliver as many as 1,700 more affordable homes by 2031, especially in rural areas, islands and towns poorly served by the current housing system. To realise this potential, and ensure that people in housing need and communities across Scotland see the benefits, the Alliance is calling for:
- the creation of a £55 million Scottish Government Community Led Housing Fund;
- action to provide more patient, low-cost finance for community led housing, including through a dedicated loan fund;
- continued and expanded support from the Scottish Government for Scotland’s nonprofit community housing enablers.
It is also seeking more support for community led housing from Local Authorities, and land reform measures to increase the community ownership of land and buildings for affordable housing.
The manifesto draws on the first-hand experience of Alliance members and the findings of the Alliance’s Census of Community Led Housing in Scotland – the first systematic analysis of the scale and character of Scottish community led housing.
21st October 2025
Alliance Members meet to discuss a shared vision and proposals for community led housing in Scotland!
Today we held the last of our three Community Led Housing Alliance Conferences.
We’re grateful to all the Alliance members who attended the events in Inverness and Dumfries — some making it through feet of snow to contribute their expertise! — and to those who joined the online conference.
Over the last 10 days we’ve had fantastic discussions about the future of community led housing in Scotland, including what makes successful projects work, and what support is needed for communities to realise the projects they have in the pipeline and solve local housing emergencies.
We heard from our community panellists Angela Williams of the Langholm Initiative, Julia Campbell from Coigach Community Development Company, Megan MacInnes from Applecross Community Company and Mike Steele from Nith Valley Leaf Trust about their projects and the future of the sector.
Attendees also considered a draft vision for community led housing in Scotland and discussed what could be achieved by 2031 if communities are properly supported — and what that support would look like.
We’re excited to feed all of this into our Community Led Housing Alliance Manifesto, which will be published in February 2026.
6th October 2025
Hearing from members: our online workshops
Over the last few weeks, Alliance members from across Scotland have come together to share their expertise through a series of online workshops. We discussed our experiences of doing community led housing, positive and negative, and identified key changes which are needed to empower the sector.
Discussions included topics such as funding and finance, community capacity, the role of community housing enablers, and relationships with government and the wider public sector. It was great to hear from representatives of local organisations in various parts of Scotland about their visions for community led housing and what support they need to make these a reality.
Alongside written submissions from members, the evidence gathered through the workshops will inform development of the Alliance’s manifesto for the 2026 Scottish Parliament election.
5th October 2025
Welcoming our 60th member!
Today, Craignish Community Company becomes the Alliance’s 60th member. C3 as it’s sometimes locally known, was established in 2004 to “promote rural regeneration following the principles of sustainable development (…) within the community of Craignish.” We’re glad to have you on board!
With our still-expanding membership, we’re hearing from community organisations involved in housing all over Scotland. Not only do we have fantastic geographical representation, but we’re also hearing from groups at all different stages of their housing projects. This is enabling us to gather robust evidence as to the existing successes, and future potentials of community led housing.
16th September 2025
The Alliance writes to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing
Today we wrote to Màiri McAllan MSP, the new Cabinet Secretary for Housing in the Scottish Government. Our letter introduces the Alliance and outlines what communities have achieved on housing so far and how much more could be achieved in the next five years, with the right support.
In the letter, we welcome the Scottish Government’s new Housing Emergency Action Plan and note the significant contribution which community led housing can make to meeting its objectives, adding that:
“as well as helping to tackle the housing emergency, community led housing has impacts beyond the provision of more homes: it is a pillar of community development, community wealth building and land reform, and central to locally led action on poverty, welfare, rural repopulation, town centre regeneration, economic development and the climate emergency.”
3rd September 2025
Katharina Bandmann joins us as the Alliance Coordinator!
With trusted experience in housing, research and local and national campaigning, she’s well placed to advocate for and coordinate the activities of the Alliance.
Please feel free to reach out with any questions about the Alliance or membership:
7th July 2025
The Alliance is formed!
Scotland’s leading community housing, land and development bodies have launched a new Community Led Housing Alliance to help tackle the national housing crisis and enable communities everywhere to thrive. Through the Alliance, community organisations from across Scotland will come together and campaign for change which delivers more community led homes.
Resources
(PDF (1.7MB): click to view in new tab)
Become a member
If you would like to become an Alliance member, please fill out the online Alliance membership form, which only takes a few minutes to complete.
If you’re not part of a member organisation engaged in Community Led Housing but want to get involved with the Alliance, get in touch with our Alliance Coordinator to learn more: