Common Ground - for Mutual Home Ownership

This publication of the New Economics Foundation proposes community land trusts as a way to separate the cost of land from the purchase price of the housing on it.

In Britain, house prices have risen to such a degree that many bus drivers, nurses, teachers, and other key service providers cannot afford to own a home. Community land trusts take the land off the marketplace, making housing much more affordable and tying the cost of home ownership more closely to average earnings in perpetuity. Mutual home owners have the opportunity as owner-occupants to look after and improve the home. At the same time, the land can be held in trust for the benefit of future generations and the community as a whole.

New Economics Foundation www.neweconomics.org