New tenants sought for Lancaster village housing co-op

Lapwing Housing Co-op on Beech Road in Halton is the latest community-led housing model to arrive in the Lancaster District, and officially opened its doors on June 14 with an open day.

The event offered the chance for neighbours and attendees to have a tour of the building - which was originally a residential home - learn about how housing co-ops work, share food, and contribute to a community artwork piece in the building.

Founded in January 2022, Lapwing Housing Co-operative is a fully mutual housing co-op, meaning that all tenants are members or prospective members, and all members are tenants.

It currently has nine tenants and is seeking two more by the end of this year.

Lapwing as a legal entity purchased the building - its first such property - on November 5 2024, without borrowing any money from a bank.

Rather than being a choice for the group, this was forced onto Lapwing’s founding members since no bank to the group’s knowledge lent to a housing co-op in the UK in 2024 due to changes in risk appetite.

The purchase of Lapwing’s home was instead enabled through a £100,000 Community-led housing grant from Lancaster City Council, and crowd lending.

This included a £145,000 loan from the previous property owners and Loan Stock investments totalling £311,700 from 21 supportive individuals.

Coun Caroline Jackson, leader of Lancaster City Council said: “I am delighted that the city council used the Government community-led housing fund to provide financial support to another genuinely innovative development in the district”.

The property is now owned by Lapwing Housing Co-operative Ltd and offers affordable housing that is controlled and managed by its members/ tenants (currently nine individuals).

Members/ tenants set their own rent and oversee the maintenance and care of the building.

Lapwing currently has nine tenants and seeks one more person to join this new housing co-op in June/July 2025, and another person to join from October 2025.

To find out more visit https://lapwinghousingcoop.wixsite.com/lapwing

If you are interested in living at Lapwing, applications can also be downloaded from Lapwing’s website and emailed to [email protected].