In 2020, a group of friends got together to start dreaming and planning for a housing coop. Bristol City Council were trialing a scheme to give unused council owned land to community housing groups. We got together a bid for the site in Rowlandson Gardens, and in 2021 we were successful. This means that we get the land for free-ish, as long as we keep to the vision and plans that we laid out – for secure, affordable, eco-housing.
Since then we have applied for and received many grants.
- 2022 – Awarded £87k pre development funding which went a long way to support the design work, many, many surveys, some legal funding and project management costs.
- 2023 – Applied for a brownfield land release grant to clear the site which was awarded £45k and completed in 2025.
- 2024 – We were granted planning permission on our designs!
- 2025 – Successfully applied for Affordable Housing development funding and were awarded £370k towards the development costs of the 50% social housing element.
- 2026 – Awarded £12k Access Reach funding (via Resonance) to support the project to do due diligence on behalf the bank providing development finance.
Living at furze
The designs include a mix of communal and smaller dwellings. Our designs currently include a 2, 3, 4, and two 6 beds. Each building will have some shared facility, a big community dining space (as well as their own private kitchen/dining space), communal laundry facilities or a small workshop for example.
Some renders of the designs we submitted to planning are below:
The west site, facing the cycle path and community orchard is connected by a two storey balcony which makes the loft space accessible to the whole community from outside.
Render of the east site. You’re looking at a 6 bed house with the community hall on its right and small workshop space on its left. It is connected to the 2 & 3 bed the corner of which is in view in the lower right corner by a covered walkway.
We want to live in a sociable community, where members are likely to come home to find friends around the dinner table, to hear and create music, creative projects, games, films etc, as well as care and community. We expect to cook and share meals regularly within our homes and occasionally as a whole community. At the same time, we don’t expect everyone to always take part in these activities. We’re free to come home to our own private space (and to spend time being in communal spaces without feeling obliged to socialise). Children and parenting are important parts of the community. We want children and some form of shared child care to be a part of coop life, though of course each member either adult or child will form relationships where they choose.
The coop’s financial model
Our model builds on and improves the existing rental cooperative
business model. We explain it in full here.
The headlines are:
- Make affordable housing accessible to people from a range of financial backgrounds.
- Avoid members’ getting stuck in the coop if they’d rather move on though a saving scheme using withdrawable shares to allow coop members to save through housing.
- Take housing off the speculative housing market in perpetuity.
- An expansionist mission. Use capital accrued to build more coops!
Prebuild membership
We intend that everyone who gains membership during the development and build will be offered housing in Furze Coop (if they are still members when the build is complete). We are currently 4 full members with 2 children and 2 provisional member. Interested in joining?