Many different forms of cohousing are possible. At the moment the project aims to attract people and build a community. We might possibly get concessions on a brownfield site from a local council. This could take the form of a Community Land Trust (CLT). Next, as a Co-operative society, we will develop housing on the site, and finally move in. Some grants from Homes England should be available.
This is going to be a big project, requiring a lot of work, and at least several years to bring to completion. But the process is a known one, and providing we can get enough people interested, we can certainly do it. We are currently at step 2a on the diagram below, which has been shamelessly plagiarized from the excellent UK Cohousing leaflet.
There are lots of things to think about, in a cohousing project. The Shangrileeds list of considerations is a useful checklist of things that we will have to thrash out. In common with Shangrileeds, current thinking is that we will use one of the stronger forms of consensus decision-making. This is tied in with as egalitarian approach to running meetings as possible.
Cohousing West Midlands 