September 2023 Newsletter

Thank you for reading this newsletter – It’s important for us to have regular contact with our members and the wider Frome community. We’d like to hear what you think of our ideas and what we’re trying to do. We would certainly like to have you on board as we work towards creating genuinely affordable housing …

High rents are a major contributor to poverty

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a leading social organisation campaigning against poverty, released its 2023 UK Poverty Report which found that one in 5 people (20%) in the UK are in poverty. This is equal to 13.4 million people with almost 4 million of those being children.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, JRF says that “Around half of private …

December 2022 Newsletter

December brings national news about raising housing standards in the rental sector, particularly socially rented housing and changes to the Levelling Up bill in respect to housing. We know that good quality homes are needed now more than ever and we are looking at ways of securing land to build for the community in perpetuity. …

Housing Crisis Declaration

We know that housing problems are national, even international, and that Frome shares issues like soaring rents, creeping AirBnB dominance and unchecked growth of empty second homes with many other towns. Could it be that residents of those locations can help us towards a solution?  Cities and rural areas alike are experiencing desperate housing needs …

What is affordable housing?

If there was ever a word that seemed like a goalpost that just won’t stay still, particularly right now, it’s ‘affordable’. What might be affordable to one person is out of reach for another but even more fluid than that, you might not be able to afford something that you could this time last year, …

The housing crisis and green spaces

By Paul Walsh – Director – Selwood Housing Group Many of us are lucky enough to have a place to call home and so it’s easy to think that having a home is a given. But there’s a crisis happening that’s impacting 8 million people across the country and although it impacts so many people, …

The May 2021 newsletter from Frome Area Community Land Trust

Our big news this month is the launch of the Fair Homes Project, a partnership between FACLT, Selwood Housing and Mendip District Council. The project described in more detail in the article below could result in up to 30 new social rented homes for local people in housing need. Of course we recognise that all housing …

Designing and building community led affordable housing

The FACLT board holds monthly development sessions. This month Steve Watson of Middlemarch led on ‘Designing and Building Community Led Affordable Housing’. Steve’s presentation can be found on the link below : Middlemarch is a local Community Interest Company which provides technical support to Community Housing Organisations. In Dorset and Somerset it provides ‘hub’ services …

Social Housing and affordability

The importance of both having a low rent and ensuring the homes are great places to live in Introduction Housing costs across the UK for renters and owners have risen steeply over the last two decades. And Frome, as we know, is a lovely place to live so it’s drawn many to want to live …