Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the availability of co-housing for older people.

The Government recognises that the community-led housing sector - of which cohousing is an important part - delivers a wide range of benefits, including strengthening community participation in local decision-making, engendering community cohesion, achieving high quality design and strengthening the co-operative economy. Cohousing in particular has been shown to provide an excellent solution to meeting the housing needs of some older people.

A range of funding and finance is available which can be used to support the development of community-led housing (though eligibility may depend on the nature of specific developments). This includes the Levelling-Up Home Building Fund, which provides affordable loan finance for the development of sites of 5 units or more and the Affordable Homes Programme, which provides grant funding to support the capital costs of developing affordable housing in England.

Beyond funding, our recent consultation on the National Planning Policy Framework, to which we will be responding shortly, specifically included proposals designed to strengthen support for community-led housing, including changes to the size limit on community-led exception sites and a broadening of the definition of organisations able to deliver community-led housing.

As we develop our Long Term Housing Strategy, we will consider how the Government may further support the growth of the community-led housing sector, helping to deliver the additional homes the country needs.