This is what we're attempting in Lincoln/Lincolnshire over the next year. Our project is based predominantly upon an idea around sharing, and cooperation. Sharing knowledge, practical skills, craft skills, and cooperative principles and values in a more community minded way. In principle it is less about making money and more about getting things done, where every member can directly benefit as well as the local and wider community. (Which we believe to be the original aims of the pioneers of cooperatives, dating back at least to the Rochdale pioneers of the early 19th century) The workers cooperative aims would be to set up and run projects that can create an income (financially and through trade bargains, LETS), mentoring and taking a guiding role over them. A kind of management hub over the various income generators.
Forming Communities
These groups are at many different stages of development. Some may be a bunch of people with an idea, some may be at a very advanced stage - perhaps about to purchase a property and looking for people with capital and commitment. Bear in mind that much of the information may be aspirational.
If you're starting up a new project and are looking to attract more people then e-mail us. We would expect Forming Communities to have reasonably thought through ideas, 10 or 12 prospective members and perhaps a website or a legal structure already. We will require some information and a postal address from you before we consider giving you a listing within this section. If you're an individual or small handful of individuals or families looking for more people to consider different ideas then do put a notice in the People forming a Group section within the Noticeboard.
We are 6 adults (one child, four dogs, one cat) all working in woods and with a business plan to buy a wood together to work together. We are not incorporated yet, but will be very soon. We want to get on with the work, so we intend to buy the land this year and get on with planning applications and felling timber immediately after. We have a wood in mind. Our aim is to be free of debt in 15 years, autonomous (free from government subsidy), self-supporting (electricity/ water/ wood/ maybe even food on site) and long-lasting. We are based in West Wales. The woods here are conifer plantations often on old broadleaf woodland sites. We want to gradually remove the conifers to sell the timber and replant with broadleaves. We currently work felling timber, thinning, pruning, doing arboricultural work, renovating old buildings, doing hydro-electrical work, saw-milling timber, selling timber, planting trees, doing metalwork, winching timber, processing firewood and delivering wood.
We are a group of local people working to create an affordable cohousing neighbourhood in Bridport. We have negotiated the option to purchase land immediately to the west of Bridport Community hospital, in two phases.
We have at last begun the process of building the affordable neighbourhood of sustainable eco-homes that have been in the planning stages for so long. The first phase of off-plan houses and flats are now for leasehold sale off plan at 80% of open market value - for details visit our website at www.bchomes.org.uk
We anticipate starting the groundworks in January and building the homes and common house using modular construction, by late Summer 2019.
Brighton Cohousing is interested in setting up a project somewhere near Brighton.
We are a cohousing group with detailed planning permission and the resources to build 23 Passivhaus homes in Colchester for occupation in 2017.
So far we’re mainly professional people (55+) and we are actively recruiting new members able to purchase a house or flat.
Chapeltown Cohousing is creating sustainable and affordable homes for up to 33 households. Transforming derelict land into a vibrant neighbourhood with low-energy homes, shared facilities and gardens, recreational space, opportunities for inter-generational connections and a diverse intentional community grown from the local area.
What makes this venture special is that it is run by local people to benefit local people. At least two-thirds of the residents will come from Chapeltown. We are also working hard to make sure that the group reflects the diversity of the local area in terms of age, ethnicity and wealth.
We are due to start building in early 2018 and are taking applications for people wanting to part buy (25%-95%) 1 bed, 2 bed and 3 bed properties now.
We are developing a cohousing project, with a view to using land at Lyndale Road in Maryhill, Glasgow.
** PUBLIC MEETING SAT 2ND MARCH - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/clachan-cohousing-public-meeting-tickets-55... **
Cohousing is a model where a group of people build, develop and run their own community. Everyone has their own private home, but there is also a ‘common house’ where residents can come together to share activities and meals together as often as they want.
Clachan Cohousing aims to self build our project using energy efficient construction techniques, and use renewable energy sources to create homes with low carbon footprint and low energy bills.
We are developing sociocracy as a decision making process and we are also incorporating non-violent communication.
ClanAlba Housing Co-op are looking for gainfully employed/unemployed members...more info soon
We are a small group of Vegans looking to form a Co housing eco community in South Devon England. We are currently chatting about possibilities with an eye on the property market .Ideally looking for a small farm with outbuildings that could be converted into seperate residential units . We are looking for one or two more people or families to invest in 1-3 bedroom units. Based on permaculture and cohousing principles, we'd like to forge a healthier way of life: grow most of our own food and fuel; generate our own energy; share skills; provide a place for courses, activities, holidays, retreats; and create an abundant biodiverse forest garden to share. For more details please visit our website / contact us.
www.coastalcommunity.org.uk info@coastalcommunity.org.uk
We are currently a group of 5 people (with other potential members on the edge), a Couple, 10 year old girl, another male and 2 females (so we have a fairly even gender spread so far).
We intend to share cooking facilities and pool cars, but will have our own personal space.
We plan to buy a house with land and outbuildings so there will be ample room for expansion and storage. The property we buy will likely need some restoration.
Our vision is to create, within the next 3 years, a housing-based community in Cardiff that will encourage social interaction and mutual support whilst reducing our carbon footprint. The development will include self-contained and accessible homes along with a shared co-house and other facilities for communal use (laundry, tool and bike shed; external space for food-growing and leisure; car pool etc).
Housing, designed to maximise planned and informal social contact, will be built in line with ecological sustainable principles. A mixed tenure development, it will include 15-25 private, shared and rented homes, in partnership with a Housing Association. Collaboration in the planning, design and running of our community will develop the trust and friendships between all who live there.
Cohousing Woodside will be a community of 30 households where at least one occupant per household is aged 55 years and over. The new-build homes in Muswell Hill,North London, (estimated completion date May 2017) will be owned on 999 year leases (no rentals). Our Development Plan may be seen on our website. There will be a common house and the opportunity to join in shared activities, including meals and gardening. Members will manage the common facilities, and all residents are invited to take part in the life of the community.
We are still getting to know each other and sorting out our hopes and expectations in 'signing up to be neighbourly'. Our working groups are developing the Common House, policies for group living, car sharing arrangements and other aspects of group life. New members are welcome and an 'early-bird' discount applies. We hold monthly meetings locally with visitor Q & A sessions.
This project has been suspended, following the unexpected death of the founder whose vision it was.
What follows will give some idea of what was trying to be achieved. . . . Maybe others can gain inspiration from this to implement the vision anew.
Aim: To create a community based eco-village modelled on villages as existed 150 years ago.
Where:
- People work where they live.
- People create their jobs at home.
- Three/four generations live closely together. (a care-village within the village)
- The commitment to, and care for each other is “from Cradle-to-Grave”.
- The emphasis is also on restoring the Human Values and re-connect with their own inner guidance / higher self / God.
- Walk our Talk with Compassion for Self and Others
- Children learn to take responsibility and make things for themselves.
- There is a co-operative nature/forest school based on home-schooling.
We are converting our 33-acre ex-Forestry Commission plantation (purchased in 2000) to agroforestry or forest farming. We produce and sell free range chicken, pork, bacon and smoked duck. All livestock play an integral role in the management of the land, eg pigs root out existing weeds and prepare the ground for planting forage crops and trees. Wwoofers are welcome.
Future
We intend to purchase a farm and divide it into an appropriate number of smallholdings to form a commonwealth and build low-cost housing. Ownership of land and housing will be vested in the commonwealth. Prospective members must be able to demonstrate their commitment to high welfare livestock production - membership invitation achieved by working on existing holding.
Although we are still looking for other members we have a strong core group of 6 people and are in process with business applications and are looking for suitable property in the mid Wales area. Some of us have property we will sell.We are looking for others to join us who would be able to bring some capital to the venture although this is not exclusively so. The main thing is to feel in tune with our vision.We would very much like to have some younger people join us as it feels important to have a wide age range. It is our intention to have our own accommodation within the community as small family units and we will all work within the community, although some may have other work outside.
We’re a group of people with a shared aim; to work together to co-create ecovillage / co-housing projects in Wales. We aim to share resources, and work to live sustainably, with the additional support that can be gained from living nearby to one another. Options for these projects include Community Land Trusts, and Co-operatives, although some of us are also looking into ‘Freeman’ eco-villages. One of the main ideas evolving from the North Wales meetings is a peace village project of ‘united diversity’, where, similar to the Sieben Linden Eco- village, groups of two or more individuals with land next to each other form areas where they specialise in their chosen way of living. The idea is that people will thrive in the individuality of their chosen way of sustainable living, in the part the land they live on, while having the opportunity to form a group or co-operative with others who share specific goals and ways of living, and support each other in doing so.
Eco-hamlets UK was started with the aim of helping to create small sustainable neighbourhoods all over Britain. Rather than creating large, complex and expensive projects, the idea is to create small settlements that may be developed quickly, and more easily than larger projects, and that can fit into small niches in imaginative ways. Inspiration comes from Permaculture, Co-housing and Transition. Due to planning laws, in most of Britain we need to work with expensive sites and existing housing, and find creative way to make homes more affordable than normal, both to buy or rent, and that put people before profit. In Wales, there is also potential for low-impact housing, using the recent policies of the Welsh Government. The WEST WALES ECO-HAMLET is our first project. Still in its early stages, there is potential for renovating an existing pair of stone semi-detached houses, new build “conventional” eco-houses, and low-impact housing, on a site with a field and woodland.
Enlinca (Environmental Living In Cambridgeshire) is a group working towards the establishment of a (probably new-build) co-housing community with possibly 10-30 separate living units of varied size together with a central Common House and shared and personal outside space. We came together in 2000 and registered as a Company Limited by Guarantee in 2003 and currently have about 8 active members including 2 families. Our ages range from 4-70 Some of us have houses to sell and others rent property or have shared ownership arrangements.
We are looking for around 30 households in the Falmouth/Penryn area, singles, young couples, families, high flyers and retirees, the more diverse the better in our minds!
Are you a person/family/household, who:
is looking to find security and a place you can call your own without having to play the game of 'the property ladder'?
or
is already a homeowner, but sees that the solution to long term sustainable communities requires a shift in culture to how we provide housing and are looking to invest their equity in an innovative solution for future generations?
We are a group aiming to launch and manage a cohousing project in Sheffield, and active in promoting cohousing more generally. Our vision/mission is to live on a site that is multi-generational, of mixed tenure, and eco-friendly. For this purpose, in 2012 we set up a company limited by guarantee – Five Rivers Cohousing Co. Ltd. – and we are meeting regularly, investigating sites (including with Sheffield City Council and Sheffield Housing Company), and developing our collective ideas for location, architecture and site layout, collective facilities and gardening, and so on. With some 13 members at present, we welcome more to join us.
As of yet we are not living together, but we are working on it!
Our intention is to offer a space for people to live in peace and find what is right and true for them. A place for people to reflect on life and feel their way. It will be a place where people can really be themselves, to live creatively, freely, openly and honestly. A place that welcomes and invites true expression and ‘realness’. A place where people can choose to live simply, with nature, cultivating their garden and watching the clouds drift by.
When we find a place to set up- There will be the possibility for people to stay for short periods, or for long periods of time and for people to make Freeriver their home. Life will become very simple and natural, like a tribe people will begin to become a family and develop close meaningful relationships.
FRISIAN ALLIANCE — Reconstructing the ancestral heritage of the Frisian-descended peoples: Juttar, Lêtne, Stjurar, Sêkæmpar, Angelara, Kâd-hêmar, Saxmanna, Landsâton, Mârsata, Holtsâta.
Website: https://frisianalliance.webs.com/
The Frisian Alliance seeks to recreate Frisian matriarchal society as described in the Oera Linda Book, through setting up an alliance of sustainable, self-governing states for which the youth are mobilised in the service of all citizens.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/636241049765719/
A full English translation of the Oera Linda Book, the ancient Frisian text on which the Frisian Alliance bases its proposals, can be found here:
Oera Linda Book: https://oeralinda.webs.com/
Held bêid tha Frya! An tha nôme Wraldas, fon Frya, ænd thêre fryhêd grête ik jo.
Our Vision & Values
Liverpool Cohousing is intended as a community where members live in their own homes and also share community space and activities.
Our main aims are:
1. To create a range of long term secure affordable homes
2. To move towards a zero-carbon footprint
3. To be open to the possibility of sharing resources and experience with other groups
4. To build a community where there is sharing and mutual support based on trust, tolerance and respect.
5. To have a creative and dynamic approach to building community and strive towards environmentally responsible living for ourselves, future members and the wider community.
The Build
Size For the Community to be a maximum of 50 units, housing approximately 80 people. This size supports community dynamics and informal community contact.
Tenure Our aspiration is for a mixed tenure of rental, shared ownership and ownership.
Norwich Cohousing has purchased a plot of land at Sussex Street just north of the city centre, and has formed a Community Interest Company to take the project forward.
The site already has planning permission for 17 two and three-bedroom units, plus 2,500 square feet of communal space. The units are likely to be all open market or privately rented unless we can engage with a housing association.
The site is urban, so outside space is limited, but it's in a lovely street with the river nearby and opportunities for getting involved in local allotments or forming a community garden.
The city centre is in walking distance, and Norwich is a great city to live in - not too big and not too small! There are schools nearby and the University is in cycling distance.
Who we are
• We are forming a group of people that are both intending to build Nottingham’s first intentional cohousing community, and to establish a replicable model that addresses the challenges.
• We are also looking to get support from organisations and professional experts.
What we want to do
• To create a mixed intergenerational site:
- of 20 to 40 households from 1 bed apartments to 4 bedroom houses.
- that will deliver the needs of all life-stages from birth to death, so that individuals can stay in the community and be supported throughout their lives.
- that accommodates ranges of ownership, including rental, shared ownership as well as outright, and finds solutions to savings and loans needs over time.
- that uses an eco low impact approach using the latest appropriate technologies to achieve low running costs with a high quality, sustainable and adaptable interior environment in all weathers.
Our vision is to establish a Cohousing Community in Netheredge; Sheffield. We intend to refurbish and build, and subsequently to use resources, in as ecologically sustainable way as possible. We have just received planning permission on the building that we have purchased and the refurbishment is about to start! Because of this we are actively seeking new members (Nov 2016) as the project takes on a pace.
Members will have their own individual living space and the opportunity to use communal spaces for the sharing of cooking, eating, gardening, meeting, relaxing and having fun together, as well as sharing with the wider community in a variety of ways.
We own 22 acres of woodland and pasture near Bromyard in Herefordshire and we are creating an ecological and personal growth community, living as self-sufficiently as we are able. We are two committed adults plus several regular participants who may or may not become long term residents.
We are off-grid. We are managing our woodland in accord with a Woodland Management Plan we have agreed with the Forestry Commission and will use timber from it to build a community house big enough for 10 adults plus children. We have an architect working with us and we will be putting in for Planning Permission when we are ready. We already have permission for a round-wood timber framed barn for use in connection with our forestry activity and are cutting and preparing timber for this barn..
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