Urbanism
Environment
Design

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Liverpool's Homebaked community land trust is a model for local rebuilding in the wake of failed regeneration projects.

This is how we can solve the housing crisis – one home at a time by Lynsey Hanley.

Directly in front of north Liverpool's Homebaked community land trust sits Anfield stadium; behind it lies a ladder of tinned-up houses and several acres of rubble. Market triumph dominates one side of the road while market failure defines the other. The area has lived for 11 years with the disruption of "regeneration", which in reality has meant the demolition of homes under a Housing Market Renewal scheme with no "market renewal" in sight.

Entering the trust's premises, a disused baker's shop, feels like finding a safe haven from wilful destruction, where, with extraordinary resilience, local residents plan to rebuild their neighbourhood "brick by brick, loaf by loaf". Inside, a circle of canvas chairs are set up next to a kettle, mugs and a biscuit tin, and next to that, a corrugated cardboard model of the four flats the trust plans to refurbish and bring back into use at the same time as the bakery, which was a local institution until being forced into closure in late 2010.

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