As far as we're concerned, the main thing to bear in mind is that one-planet community developments respond directly and holistically so many of the crises ravaging our world, including the housing crisis, cost-of-living, ecology and climate change, mental and physical health, social isolation, connection and meaning. There is only so long our planning system can block such clearly beneficial developments.

If enough of us get together and work in a structured, resourced way, we will soon start to open a pathway through the obstructions. Once that pathway has opened, we can then work to widen it and remove remaining obstacles.

More specifically, our plan is:

1. Work with professionals across a range of fields including low-impact design specialists and low-impact planning consultants, to refine our community design and make it as strong as possible ahead of planning applications.
2. Make use of existing favourable policies such as OPD in Wales and AL1 in Cornwall to gain permission for our first communities, and use these pilot projects to demonstrate viability ahead of applications in other areas.
3. Build a robust case for national policy change by proving high demand from aspiring residents, documenting the many social and ecological benefits of pilot communities, showing the clear alignment of one-planet developments with stated local and national policy objectives (such as affordable housing provision, nature recovery, active lifestyles), and gathering public opinion behind our mission.
4. Armed with all of the above, campaign and lobby for national planning policy to empower local planning authorities (LPA’s) to treat one-planet community developments as exceptions to rural planing policy.
5. If absolutely necessary, as a last resort, push the envelope by building without permission and making a fight of it with LPA’s retrospectively.

There will be 3 buy-in tiers:

• Low: £0—£50k
• Middle: £50k–£200k
• HIgh: £200k+

Each community will have 5 households at the low tier, 5 at mid-range, and 5 at the higher tier.

Buy-in amounts will be means tested based on assets and circumstances to ensure fair contribution.

Regardless of buy-in amount, every household will have equal ownership, rights, and voice in governance.

This redistributive model recognises that wealth inequality is a structural reality in the UK, and builds economic diversity and mutual aid into the community's foundation.

1. Join the online hub
2. Then join a regional group if there’s one in a location that suits you, or start a new one if there’s not one in your location yet.

The best way to get started is to join our online hub. It’s free, open to all, and it’s where you’ll find everyone else involved in the mission and hear about everything that’s going on across our ecosystem.

Yes, definitely. Bring your life experience, your longing for a more beautiful world, your belief in the kind of communities we’re trying to create, and your readiness to participate where you can. That’s more than enough. At this stage we’re building momentum and capacity, and there's room for every kind of contribution. Later, when communities are actually forming, there’ll be buy-in options starting at £0 to ensure access to people across the full range of economic circumstances.

To find out if there’s a group near you, you’ll need to join the hub and have a look. If you don’t see one in your area you can create one and start the ball rolling—there’s guidance on how to do that inside the hub.

It’s going to be at least a couple of years before we’re ready to build our first communities. Our roadmap lays out the steps we’re going to be taking on the way to that point. How quickly we move through those steps depends on how fast we build capacity and momentum. So if you want to shorten the timeline, join in now and help to move things forward.

There will be no rent or mortgage to pay for community residents. This is made possible via a blended financing model that combines member buy-ins with various forms of grant funding.

Our goal is for individual households to hold secure, lifelong tenure without personal debt.

Communal operating costs will be kept minimal—less than £100k annually across the entire site. Community enterprises are designed to generate sufficient income to cover communal operating costs fully.

At a household level, most daily needs will be met through communal resources, infrastructure and services, as well as pooled human resources, meaning typical household living costs will be remarkably low—a tiny fraction of conventional expenses. The aim is for community enterprises to also provide each household with a modest universal basic income to cover basic expenses.

This creates a foundation of material security and ease, allowing residents to focus their time and energy on meaningful work, relationships, and creative contributions rather than economic survival.

The community land will be owned by a CLT formed for the purpose.

The community infrastructure will be owned by a housing co-operative, which will lease the land from the CLT on a long-term lease.

Resident buy-in will give residents membership of the co-operative, entitling them to secure occupancy rights for a private house (with garden) and shared use of all the communal land, spaces, and facilities.

This ownership model keeps the land in perpetual stewardship for the community's purpose, ensures affordability for future generations, and allows democratic governance of shared resources whilst protecting individual household security and autonomy.

Regardless of their buy-in contribution, each household will be an equal member of the community housing co-operative, sharing equal rights to all community resources and equal weight in governance processes.

More specifically, each household's share will entitle them to:

• Their private house and plot of land
• Fair use of the entire community infrastructure
• Participation in the life of the community
• A fair share of all community resources, including:
  • Food and fuel grown on community land
  • Energy
  • Income from community businesses
• A fair share of all additional forms of community abundance
• Equal participation in community governance

If a household chooses to leave, they’ll sell their share back to the community at their original buy-in amount adjusted for inflation.

The community will then sell it on to an incoming household for a similar amount.

There is no profit extraction for either side on exit—this isn't property speculation. The goal is stability, fairness, and accessibility.

There will be a guest house on site with the primary function of facilitating membership changes, allowing both incoming and outgoing residents a comfortable transition period.

To give an sense of the costs involved, land in our target range will typically cost between £300,000 and £500,000 for 40–50 acres.

The shared infrastructure—including the community hub, bathhouse, workshop spaces, guest accommodation, and all communal facilities—will require approximately £980,000 to build.

Individual homes, when constructed using natural building methods with straw bale, timber, and earth materials, and with substantial community labour input, cost around £40,000 each for modest 1–3 bedroom dwellings.

Additional costs include site surveys, planning consultancy, legal setup of the co-operative structure, utilities infrastructure (solar arrays, boreholes, treatment systems), access roads and paths, landscaping, and contingency reserves—adding approximately £250,000 to £380,000 to the overall budget.

For a complete 15-household community, this brings the total project cost to approximately £2 million to £2.5 million, depending on land costs and final specifications.

Beautiful, modest, curvy natural homes (1–3 bed) built with straw‑bale, local timber, lime/clay plasters, and reciprocal frame living roofs. They’re healthy, low‑energy, and designed to blend into the landscape. Think calm, earth‑toned spaces that hold warmth in winter and cool in summer, with running costs a fraction of conventional builds.

Around 40–50 acres for ~15 households. About 10 acres for private plots and shared infrastructure, ~20 acres for agroecology (veg, staples, small livestock), and 10–20 acres for agroforestry and conservation. The layout follows permaculture zoning from kitchen gardens to wider fields and woodland.

40–50 acres, near a town for cycling/walking access, compact and well‑drained, south‑facing where possible, with low constraints and good entrances. A weighted matrix guides site selection alongside neighbour and ecological engagement. 

Many, including: A generous community hub for meals and socials, a dance / yoga / workshops space, bath house and laundry, maker workshop, digital office, guest and volunteer accommodation, gardens, swimming ponds, a ceremonial space, and a small eco‑tourism area.

Target will be 60–80% food sovereignty through small-scale diversified agriculture, with no‑dig horticulture, polytunnels, staples rotations, small livestock, food forests, mushrooms and bees.

We start with conservation (super‑insulation, shared amenities, reduced usage) and add renewables: solar PV with batteries, solar thermal for hot water, and ultra‑efficient rocket mass heaters. Site‑dependent small wind or micro‑hydro may complement the mix. There might be a hook up to the grid as backup during extended low‑sun periods, but the goal is near‑total autonomy with collective demand kept minimal through design.

Clean borehole supply supported by extensive rainwater harvesting. Greywater is treated by reedbeds and reused for irrigation. Compost toilets close the nutrient loop safely, building soil rather than burdening sewers.

We'll aim to keep digital tools purposeful and in their place so human contact, nature and craft are foregrounded. There will be connectivity in the shared office, and possibly at certain times in the central hub. Optional in private homes.

About 10 hours per adult weekly, spread across food growing, land work, care, maintenance, meal prep, enterprises, and governance.

We'll create clear systems for organising routine work. These systems will account for different abilities and circumstances to ensure fair participation, effective use of personal strengths, as well as variety. We'll also run regular skill-sharing sessions so members can learn multiple roles and build competencies across a whole range of land-based activities.

A small eco‑tourism site with 6 roundhouse sleeping pods, on-site retreats, courses and workshops, a natural‑building arm, and food/craft offerings. Together we aim for communal enterprises to provide enough income to run the commons and provide a modest baseline income for residents.

Yes, of course, and we think it’s probably a good idea to limit external work to 10 hours per week—so that outside work doesn’t hollow out community life.

We're also playing with ideas around a modest contribution—say 10% of external earnings—to the community pot, ensuring outside work enriches rather than depletes the commons.

Remote work will be supported through the shared office/digital hub.

Through design choices and policy: reserved places for families, elders and disabled residents, tiered buy‑ins from £0, accessible homes and routes, and a strong commitment to cultural inclusivity.

We will take a pro-active approach to social cohesion and harmony, while striving hard to find a graceful balance communal praxis and personal space/autonomy:

• Communities will use consent‑based sociocracy for all significant operational and strategic decisions, with clear circles and roles, regular retrospectives, and facilitation training for all. This model allows for genuinely democratic governance without requiring endless meetings or inviting slow consensus paralysis.
• Regular Way of Council circles will ground everyone in honest, heartfelt speaking and deep listening, meaning that conflicts can be held in the group field, diffused early, and are less likely to escalate.
• A trauma-informed approach recognises that many of us will arrive carrying past wounds, and creates conditions for healing rather than re-harm.
• Formal agreements around the intention to create a community culture of solidarity and care, combined with practices of honouring nervous-system needs, honest feedback, accountability, and repair will try to keep conflict generative rather than destructive.
• When strong tensions arise, we will lean into them, using restorative processes and professional mediation where needed.

Communities will reserve at least 3 households for families with young children.

We hope to create rich, diverse, intergenerational landscapes where children grow up embedded in a relaxed culture of care, regularly immersed in nature, and surrounded by adults doing meaningful work.

Communities will have a schoolroom space, natural play areas, a childcare rota within the communal hours, and partnership options with local education.

Children will be invited into age‑appropriate tasks to learn while doing and feel a sense of active contribution, and will have a voice in occasional child‑inclusive councils.

Each community will have a unique local context, but in general the aim will be integration not isolation.

Communities will host regular open days and seasonal celebrations which the wider local community can attend, as well as running retreats, courses and workshops that could enrich local culture.

Residents will be encouraged to seek out opportunities to participate in local events and initiatives, such as village fairs, farmers' markets, community gardening projects, and local conservation groups.

A circular‑economy procurement approach will prioritise local suppliers, strengthening jobs and building goodwill whilst reducing transport emissions and strengthening regional resilience.

It’s the growing community of people backing this work, sharing ideas, skills and resources to help shape and launch our vision, our enterprise initiatives, and our first pilot communities.

Anyone can get involved, and there’s lots of ways to do so, from joining the online hub, attending events, contributing skills or exploring funding partnerships.

Right now, the best place to start is the hub, where you can connect with others, share skills, and join working groups. You can also explore our get involved gage for a full range of ways to contribute immediately.

Soon, we'll be hosting building parties and other hands-on events and will need volunteers to help run those.

Later, as pilot communities take shape, there will be opportunities to join construction parties on site, help with land work. There will also be scope to participate in wider campaigning efforts to shift policy and cultural narratives around land-based community living.

Yes. We urgently need operational funds to help us grow our organisational capacity and develop our enterprise initiatives. This funding could take the form of low-interest loans to the CIC, or equity with capped returns.

Beyond that, we’ll be seeking to develop grant partnerships tied to specific outcomes like affordable housing, nature restoration, food security or community resilience.

If you're interested in exploring how your capital could help build viable, replicable models of one-planet community living, please explore our partners page and get in touch.

Yes. All our enterprise initiatives need people to help move them along. At the moment all work will be voluntary, but many paid roles will be opening up as we launch and develop these ventures, and existing volunteers will be given priority consideration for these positions.

Whether you have expertise in natural building, permaculture design, enterprise development, education, hospitality, media, or digital systems, there's likely a way your skills can help.

Check out the get involved page for specific roles and pathways in.