WE HAVE A SITE!!!!

WE HAVE A SITE!!!! 🎊
We’re finally able to shout about the news we’ve been dying to share. We finally have a site! To build on!!

GOSH THAT’S QUICK WORK!?
Not exactly. As we mentioned in our previous update, we’ve been waiting since April 2025 to hear back from the council about the larger development with Hastings Commons. We spent many evenings feeding into and attending the housing strategy meetings, banging the drum for co-ops. We kept emailing the council over the months and heard nothing.
While all this was (or wasn’t) going on, the landlord of one of our members got in touch about various buildings he was in the process of buying. His aim was to help new co-ops find potential homes and get on with the business of actually thriving. This means being willing to use one’s privilege, to think a little more radically (though fair housing—come on—is hardly radical), and to practise a basic, everyday humanity and solidarity 🤝 We need more people like this.
Finally, back in August, he got in touch about something that could work…

LAND!
We have some land. Walkable, buildable land!
We’ve met with an architect to assess the site’s feasibility, and the landowner has offered to cover the cost of the first stage: securing an Approval in Principle. He has also offered us the land at cost price. Once again, what is a relatively small thing for him is radical and game-changing for our co-op, and potentially impactful for housing more widely.
The full costs will be worked into our next business plan, which would be 🫠 our third business plan in three years.

SO, WHEN DO YOU MOVE IN?
As this would be a four-unit building, a much smaller project than our partnership with Hastings Commons, we’re exploring doing it as a far more affordable self-build development. We would project-manage the build ourselves, with support and expert guidance from people in our network who do this for a living, alongside community-build groups from around the country.
So, as you’re reading this, our Housing Co-ordinator is very busy getting in touch with these brilliant people and researching funding to start making some of this happen.
Hold tight team, more updates soon
💜