The last 3 and 4 bedroom homes are available in LILAC. For those interested in joining and becoming a member of Lilac Mutual Home Ownership Society, it’s a great option which can suit a variety of situations. These could include:

• A whole family
• A group of friends who want to all join the Co-operative and take on a lease for a house together (this could work out quite cheap as you would split the minimum income needed to live in the property between a number of people – see our affordability page for the minimum incomes needed)

You can make and ethical investment and invest money in LILAC by buying loan stock in the project. Read on for more information on our first loan stock issue

First Issue of £200,000 unsecured loan stock
This offer closes on 20 Sept 2011.

LILAC Mutual Home Ownership Society Ltd
An ethical lending opportunity in a pioneering co-operative cohousing project – where your money will grow too! Your financial support will help demonstrate that building an affordable low impact neighbourhood in Leeds is possible.

More people have committed to living in LILAC meaning that we now only have 8 dwellings left (2 houses and 6 flats). We are encouraging friends of the project who are seriously considering living in LILAC to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

This year the Government has been looking at exemplary housing projects to support through their Low Carbon Investment Fund. LILAC is one of only 8 projects to receive this prize. The funds, from the Department for Energy & Climate Change, will significantly help make our sustainable homes.

A new wave of people have signed-up to definitely live in the LILAC cohousing development. Amanda, Jenny, Elinor, Brenda, Clive, Sarah and Robin are all new members. It is great to have more people on-board committed to making LILAC happen and being part of the design process. 8 of the 20 households are now confirmed. We also have some new “prospective members” who are very seriously considering joining up.

Being a cooperative – owned and run by our members – is a crucial part of what LILAC is about. It also makes us different from many other cohousing projects.

We are taking part in Co-operatives Fortnight which runs 19 June to 3 July. There loads of events happening across the country – see http://www.thereisanalternative.coop/events/fortnight. We have two events:

Thursday 17 June – LILAC Friends meal
A meal at the wonderful Cheerful Chilli vegetarian restaurant near Otley.

Monday 28 June – Cohousing Films

Environment Minister, Hilary Benn, presented LILAC with the ‘Best Emerging Social Enterprise Award’ at a recent ceremony. www.thebusinessdesk.com.

Next in our successful series of social events for Friends (100 of them now!) is a visit to the nearest existing cohousing project to us.

Thundercliffe Grange Cohousing has been going for 30 years. There are 12 privately owned flats in this former mansion house. Whilst quite different from LILAC there are sure to be things to learn. Depending on the weather, we can afterwards go for a walk amongst the bluebells in Woolley Wood. More info at www.cohousing.org.uk/thundercliffe-grange

A super green and super cheap eco-village is to be built in west Leeds.
Yorkshire Evening Post
16 November 2009 by aisha.iqbal[at]ypn.co[dot]uk (click on the three dots to the left of the @ for full email address)
Click here for the original article.

An as-yet-under-wraps corner of west Leeds has been chosen as the location for the city’s first co-housing project.

The futuristic energy-saving commune will be almost completely self-sustaining – with houses built primarily from straw bales, virtually no artificial heating and recycled rainwater running through the taps.

Most people want to know to know “where?” and “how much?” before getting more involved. For the last year the Development Group have been meeting almost weekly to move the project forward. This has involved meeting with council officers and councillors; attending land auctions; producing a business plan; initial work with architects; assessment of a long list of 11 sites; number crunching; constitution as a legal entity; and many other tasks.