Reasons to be cheerful!
Home sweet (social) home: One of our founder members, Martyn Holmes appeared on an episode of the Reasons to be Cheerful podcast hosted by Ed Milliband and Geoff Llyod this month. You can hear Martyn talking about Bunker, alongside architect Peter Barber and former deputy mayor of Vienna Maria Vassilakou. One thing they all agreed on: we need more high-quality, accessible social housing - and we need it now!
The Block:The wonderful Place Agency has featured Bunker as part of ‘The Block’ - a place to share stories about the idea of home. Hear the podcast, watch the animation and the short film here.
We believe that low impact, affordable, high-quality homes shouldn’t just be a luxury for the wealthy few – so we’re building an alternative. In 2020, two of our member families moved into Bunker’s first two homes on Plumpton Road, Brighton, built on land leased from Brighton & Hove City Council. They’re now living in healthy, affordable and secure housing that they collectively own and control. But, we don’t want to stop there. We want to bring more homes like this to our city.
Over the next year, we plan to raise up to £450,000 in loan stock. Our first target is £150,000 which will enable us to build our next two homes at our Dunster Close Garage site. Individuals and organisations who invest will get 2% interest on their money in return.
Here’s how you can get involved:
Invest in Bunker: If you have already supported us, thank you so much. If you are able to invest again, or make a first investment, then we would be very grateful. If you would like to do this, please get in touch via email here and let us know. Once the campaign goes live – along with our full loan stock information document – we can send you the link to the page.
Help us by spreading the word: Keep up to date with Bunker by following us on social media to like and share our posts. If you can’t make the launch, or just have some burning questions about our loan stock raise, please get in touch on via email here and we can answer them, or arrange a chat.
Bunker News
We’ve secured funding to develop plans for Bunker’s third site
Bunker is pleased to announce that we have been awarded a £71,743 Community Housing Fund grant to help develop our plans for a site at Hinton Close in Brighton (see the image for an idea of what it might look like). The Fund was set up by the government to support housing that is affordable at local income levels and remains so in perpetuity – exactly what Bunker is about! The grant will mean we can put together a planning application with the support of AURAA Studio, our architects. We hope to submit this by the end of March this year.hatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Our second site: it’s all coming together
This year we hope to start building our next two homes (see image for how they will look), supported via Brighton & Hove City Council with a grant from the Brownfield Land Release Fund – a scheme that supports local authorities to bring forward sites for self-build housing projects. But before we can go full steam ahead on building we also need to raise more finance through long-term borrowing...
We’re busy putting together our loan stock offer so we can raise the money we need to build our next nine high-quality, low-impact homes. As always, these will be co-operatively run homes, at rents we can actually afford – homes for future generations that won’t be sold off, or make money for a housing developer.
We’ll be asking all of our friends and supporters to get behind our fundraising drive – from investing money to helping us spread the word. We’re launching this Spring and you’ll be the first to know. Watch this space…
Bunker Team
We are a mix of local households from different backgrounds and professions with one single goal: to work collectively to take control of our housing and build more affordable houses in Brighton and Hove.
Our members are passionate and motivated individuals committed to building low-cost homes using the most economic and eco-friendly construction methods available to us. Our vision is of a series of small self-built developments of affordable housing that will remain affordable in perpetuity providing a safe, economically secure environment for us and our children to grow up in.
Two local families are now off the the housing register, out of their insecure, mouldy, damp and overpriced private rented accommodation and into healthy, secure and affordable housing that they collectively own and control.
Some of Bunkers media attention
Here are some more links to articles and videos!
https://www.cch.coop/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cch_casestudy_bunker-WEB-SINGLES.pdf
https://www.ecology.co.uk/projects/bunker-housing-coop/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/.../britains-housing-scandal-series... Bunker on the BBC talking about our project to self build affordable eco homes for households on low incomes in Brighton and Hove (minutes 09:12 - 16:14)
https://youtu.be/UzhFDZMpMrc Community Led Homes - Bunker Success Story -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y954DLUNs_w Brighton & Hove Community Land Trust (BHCLT) led a bus tour of local housing co-operatives, each with its own story.
https://www.theargus.co.uk/.../17966383.sites-earmarked.../ The committee also agreed to lease two plots of land in Dunster Close, Hollingdean, to Bunker Housing Co-operative for community led housing.
https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2019-03-16/building-solutions-to-the-affordable-housing-crisis?fbclid=IwAR0peIdKYT9IkOTt7Z8wA2hTef41FsLe4N6EmfXLayM2MV1XlY2mbZ7NlXA Bunker on ITV Meridian
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0004tss We made an appearance on BBC Politics South East yesterday, along with some of our local council candidates... How can we tackle the housing crisis in Brighton & Hove?
https://youtu.be/8a7UXT98J94 New video about community-led housing in Brighton from CDS Co-operatives featuring Bunker Self-Build Housing Co-op and South Downs Eco Co-Operative!
.https://www.theguardian.com/.../can-co-ops-solve-the... Bunker in the Guardian
https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2019-03-16/building-solutions-to-the-affordable-housing-crisis?fbclid=IwAR1fS24RGny5FKJNsBpaBA3uTf64UYkwXiAJ9ADQkT8QW6GeDfOG9wjS6ho Bunker HC, Brighton and hove community land trust and CLH event on ITV.
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/17507944.brightons-community-housing-groups-share-innovative-schemes/?fbclid=IwAR3zfLYaydwTsLXfuTZKeTCDvAoK7jChCm16LgsOVrrwD56J-PMKyfghMD0 Thanks to The Argus for covering our BHCLT CLH event
https://www.24housing.co.uk/.../brightons-bunker-as.../ Article from 24 Housing Magazine about Brighton’s Bunker housing co-op as bridge to housing gap
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Thank you, Martyn Holmes, for being one of our local happiness champions. Martyn has a place on this year's Brighton & Hove Happy List 2018.
“Martyn Holmes and his partner Agata Bogacka co-founded Bunker Self Build Housing co-operative in 2014 after spending five years trying to find affordable housing in Brighton & Hove. Martyn has worked tirelessly and with amazing energy to get their first self build site and raise the money to build two new affordable homes, on a dis-used garage site. Martyn is someone who inspires other people, particular low income families with children, to feel like they too can build their own affordable housing. He shares his learning freely, helping others to feel they can also change their lives.”
www.uk.coop/directory/bunker-housing-co-operative-limited
The Brighton & Hove Happy List is party of a national network of lists that recognise those who are helping make their communities better, happier places. See here for more information: http://www.happycity.org.uk/campaigns/happy-list/ The full 2018 list can be found here… https://drive.google.com/.../1Kf0eQIUfatAHXUAvO8mfn.../
https://youtu.be/MBScZMEgFq8 Brighton and Hove Community Land Trust - This short film tells the story of Bunker Self-Build Housing Co-op - how it all started and their plans as a pilot for affordable community-led housing for low income people across Brighton & Hove -
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/17287122.housing-co-op-delivers-affordable-homes-brighton/ The Argus (2018)
. http://www.itv.com/.../how-do-we-provide-affordable.../ ITV (2018) Guy and Martyn from Bunker HC on ITV Meridan news
https://youtu.be/KVT3EDPc3KI Spreading the word about affordable community-led housing and why it should come to Surrey. We speak to SurreyCHP
https://www.redpepper.org.uk/build-it-yourself-a-growing-housing-alternative/? Red Pepper Magazine (2017)
fbclid=IwAR0FA7MArZ_Gj02QoTdh2LbNvk7wbhrdMXzQs8cMNSN9Hht5hmUzcyDKPgk