Community Land Trusts (CLTs) have become a popular housing model among housing activists and practitioners around the world. Originally developed by rural African-American communities in the United States, it is now spreading in urban areas across North America and the United Kingdom, as well as in continental Europe. Eduard Cabré Romans - International Relations Consultant at the Barcelona Municipal Institute of Housing and Renovation (IMHAB) - tells us more.

“International financial institutions (IFIs), as well as public development banks in general, should contribute to the development of good-quality and affordable housing solutions because the sector is of high social relevance and cannot be left entirely to free market forces,” writes Rolf Wenzel, CEB Governor. By providing advantageous financing to housing associations and social housing providers, the IFIs can actively support the increase in housing supply, particularly for low-income and vulnerable population groups, and thus strengthen social cohesion in Europe.

Why is it difficult to mobilise and fully exploit the available financial tools in the combat against energy poverty and what are the challenges for social housing providers? Our policy officer, Edit Lakatos and Apostolos Arsenopoulos, a researcher in the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) provide an overview of the existing financial instruments and successful schemes focused on facilitating the implementation of energy efficiency-related measures, in the context of addressing the problem of energy poverty, along with its adverse socio-economic effects.