Feature image: Yorspace CLT breaking ground at Lowfield Green Housing Co-op
The new government has been quick off the blocks with a planning consultation, new legislation on planning, leasehold and devolution, and an autumn statement to come on the 30th October. This means that we are now in a crucial time to influence how the government can support CLTs to contribute to the UK’s affordable housing targets, building community wealth and sustainability goals.
Our government has recognised that we need all hands on deck to diversify how we are responding to the housing crisis, how we build community wealth and how we make a just transition to net zeros. Collectively, the 360+ CLTs in England and Wales can be a major contributor. But we need the funding, policy reform and capacity to make real progress – without being held back by hurdles in a system not designed for CLTs.
This is where our lobbying campaign comes in: we are asking you to write to your MP using our briefing note and letter templates (see below) to ask for the support that CLTs need to deliver more in their communities and nationally.
So get lobbying today!
So, how can you write to your MP?
- Find your MP’s contact information here
- CC [email protected] or email us on [email protected] to let us know who you have contacted.
- Attach this briefing note for your MP AND this template letter that your MP can use to contact the Housing Minister.
- Copy and paste our letter template text into a Google Doc, Word document or directly into your email.
- Amend the template below so that you can express why their support matters for your community. You can find some messaging guidance for what might resonate with your local MP here. Our 10 point manifesto may provide some further inspiration.
- Contact us on [email protected] if your MP responds or forwards your message to the Housing Minister.
- Celebrate that you have taken action for CLTs by sharing our “I’ve lobbied” image on social media (download here) and make sure you tag your MP
Why does lobbying matter?
Hear from our CEO, Tom Chance about why we’re calling for you to lobby your MP for CLT positive policies and funding:
To reach critical mass, we need all CLTs, Community Led Housing Hubs and allies of the CLT movement to collectively write to our MPs asking for key reforms. In this way, we will show the real weight and impact behind the CLT movement.
Over the past decade we have achieved amazing successes by lobbying together:
- Securing £240m in pledged money through the Community Housing Fund.
- Recognising community-led development for the first time in national planning policies.
- Protecting CLTs from reforms to leasehold law, the voluntary right to buy and mandatory rent cuts.
We have only achieved this together. The CLT Network team lobbies ministers and officials at a national level, and builds support among national influencers. But you open the doors for us by mobilising your MPs, showing ministers that there is strong backbench support for our proposals. Most correspondence to ministers is handled by officials. But if your MP writes to the minister, that will land on his desk for him to review personally. We have been told repeatedly what an impression these letters have made on ministers.
We can’t do this without you. The more CLTs get stuck in, the better the platform we have with the government.
Another important thread to this lobbying campaign is that since our recent general election, many of us are also welcoming new MPs who may not be aware of CLTs locally or as an impactful national movement. This means that this is now a great opportunity for us to introduce our new local leaders to community led housing.
What are we asking for?
We are calling for key proposals that would bring about planning and land reforms, crucial funding for CLTs, and regulatory reforms. These would all smooth the journey for CLTs as they deliver new projects so that CLTs can do more for communities across England and Wales. Read more about these in our briefing here.
Our manifesto proposes 10 key policy updates that would give CLTs the funding and practical support to develop projects.
If they were implemented these policy proposals could see CLTs delivering up to 15,000 affordable homes a year and generating up to £1 billion in community wealth. Benefits such as establishing a land commission and diversifying funding opportunities would support CLTs that are stewarding land for nature and sustainable agriculture.
Happily, since we published our manifesto, a couple of these points are now in the works – like a Community Right to Buy and Community Led Exception Sites. With these points, our work now is to influence our leaders to implement these policies in a way that is the most beneficial and inclusive of the many different types of CLTs.
How can we do it? Letter writing
Letter writing (by email or post) is an effective tactic for us. You write to your local MP(s), on behalf of your CLT, asking them to lobby ministers on your behalf. If you have projects across more than one constituency, lobby them all. You have an influence on your MP as a constituent, and a local organisation with some profile. Most MPs would love to associate themselves with what you do.
While many MPs will respond to locally relevant correspondence from anyone, some MPs will only deal with correspondence from constituents. If you live in their constituency, be sure to include your address at the end of your email/letter. If you don’t, make clear that you have a project in their constituency, giving its address.
The MPs’ offices will update you if they pick it up, and if they get a reply. If you can keep us informed, we can track which MPs are being engaged and what the Government is telling them.
We provide you with a template letter to customise and send to your MP(s). We also provide a briefing for your MP, and a template letter they can use when writing to the government.
When customising your letter, bear in mind that you need to ‘tick boxes’ both for the government and your MP. You may know something about your local MP to add some local flavour. Here are some boxes CLTs can tick, based on our understanding of general national priorities:
Government/Labour messages
- Additional housing supply, especially social housing
- Rural social housing supply in particular
- Public support for house building, especially in sensitive contexts
- Raising quality – design, environmental standards
- Doubling the size of the co-operative economy (manifesto pledge)
So in describing your CLT and projects, think about how you can emphasise those points. If you’ve built, or are planning, new social/affordable rent homes, include that. Mention if you had lots of supportive comments on a planning application; if you’re developing in an AONB or a tricky infill site; if you’re building to Passivhaus standards.
If you previously received CHF grants from you council, our Community Led Homes partnership or Homes England, please mention this!
Opposition party messages
Most parties will agree on points 1-4 from the above list.
Each opposition party also has its own positions, and critiques of the government. But be careful not to overdo that in your letter. You ultimately want the MP to write to the minister in a way that will influence them. For example, you might point out to:
- Backbench Labour MPs that CLT homes are also protected from the Right to Buy, and evidence shows they are highly affordable to people on low incomes.
- Conservatives that the previous government left some positive legacy e.g. in the thousands of homes brought forward by Community Housing Fund.
- Greens that CLT homes are protected from the Right to Buy and that the party has emphasised more social housing.
- Liberal Democrats that their manifesto strongly supported community-led development and neighbourhood planning, and social housing.
- Reform UK that it supports more social housing meeting the needs of local communities.
Watch our campaign launch webinar back to hear more about how we work together to make change for CLTs
To learn more about lobbying your MP, CLT Network members can join us at one of our events this September.
On Thursday 5th September, we launched our lobbying campaign with a session about:
- How CLTs can effectively reach critical mass through coordinated lobbying to MPs
- How your lobbying fits into the big picture of making it easier to deliver CLT projects
- Why member lobbying matters to create funding, policy and planning change
- What you can do to build relationships and support from your MP
More ways to build a relationship with your MP
Image: In May 2024 Hook Norton CLT invited politicians from their local area to their open day for their 12 affordable home development.
Our CLT Local Advocacy Handbook goes into much more detail about how you can be an effective local advocate for your CLT, and CLTs generally. But you might want to consider these other tactics to engage your MP:
- Invite them to visit a site or project, to discuss your successes and challenges.
- Always invite them to any opening or launch of a completed project, offering them an opportunity to speak.
- Stage a fun and friendly event, or demonstration, at a meaningful location like a site you are seeking or outside the council offices, and invite them along.
- Do your own research on local issues, or attitudes towards e.g. house building, and share it with your MP – be helpful.
If you have any questions or if you want to share any milestones or stories that we can use in our case studies we want to hear from you! Please get in touch on [email protected]