Lawford Housing Enterprise Trust celebrates 10 Year Anniversary

10 years ago, the Lawford Housing Enterprise Trust was formed. A new ‘not for profit’ business formed to deliver new homes for locally connected young people at low-cost rents incorporating a ‘savings plan’ to help purchase a house of their own in the future.

When Rose began its public consultation for the Summers Park development in 2012, the aim was to identify, then address, where possible, the issues of concern raised by the community.

The most urgent need identified was the shortage of affordable housing for local young people.

To tackle this challenge, the concept and idea was to see if the housing contribution from the Summers Park development could be directed to benefit the local ‘housing needy’ young.

The ‘Almshouse’ concept of providing housing for the elderly was considered and then reconfigured to form a model for the ‘young’ to take forward. With huge support from the Lawford Parish Council and Tendring District Council, Lawford Housing Enterprise Trust (LHET)was born!

The Trust is a ‘not for profit’ organisation, providing homes for rent for local people with a connection to Lawford, Manningtree and Mistley.

This Trust provide houses for rent under a local lettings plan where the rents are less than the relevant Local Authority market rent. The maximum tenancy length is 5 years. Monthly payments include a £100 ‘deposit’ with this ‘savings’ element returnable to tenants at the end of their tenancy to aid their deposit on purchasing a home of their own.

To date, the Trust has managed 47 separate tenancies by the end of the year, this number will have increased to 55 across 31 properties helping over 100 Mistley, Manningtree and Lawford young people to have their own affordably rented home.

The LHET is in vibrant health and looks forward to working with Tendring District Council  in the future to continue delivering much needed homes for the young of Mistley, Manningtree and Lawford.

Alan Coley, Chairman of the LHET comments, “Whenever I’m asked about how we manage to achieve what we have, I always give three reasons:

• We’re not here to make a profit.
• None of the Directors get paid for their work
• The continued unstinting support of the community and District Council
• Satisfaction of meeting a very real, huge community need

From The Director ‘trustees’ –  “Congratulations to all, a big day. From nothing except an idea, to where we are now. Helping so many young people locally to get a foothold on the journey to home ownership is a massive achievement for the local community but most importantly the local ‘young’ who desperately need help and support in their aspiration of home ownership.”

From Gareth King and Olivia Brown, former tenants:

“We feel very fortunate to have been selected for the first new homes created under this scheme. We were able to rent a sought-after home in our local area and at the same time save money towards a home of our own. Following 2½ years of saving hard and with the assistance of the LHET, we have now happily purchased our own property. This is a great initiative for young people needing a little extra help to get on the property ladder.”