LILAC: Low Impact Living Affordable Community
Overview
LILAC began in 2006 with a group of five Leeds residents interested in building their own homes to live and bring up their children in a different way. After three years of intensive research and planning, they established Lilac Mutual Home Ownership Society Ltd (MHOS) as a registered Co-operative Society in 2009. Building commenced in 2012, and the first residents moved in during May 2013.
The Site & Design
LILAC is built on an old school site in Bramley, west Leeds, comprising twenty self-contained homes – a mix of one and two bed flats and three and four bed houses. Most have private gardens; upper flats have balconies. The homes are finished to a very high standard. The buildings are constructed using ModCell®, which are pre-made sections of timber frame, straw bales and lime render, creating super-insulated houses with large, south-facing glazed panels to maximise sunlight and solar energy.
Ownership & Affordability Model
LILAC were the first co-operative to use the Mutual Home Ownership (MHO) model, a collective approach to home ownership. MHO society members and residents pay a collective mortgage rather than traditional individual ones. Members contribute financially on the basis of their income levels – defined at LILAC as 35% of net household income. Members build equity that they can take with them based on a national income-based formula rather than property values, ensuring that homes remain affordable for future generations. LILAC has a 25-year fixed rate mortgage provided by ethical bank Triodos at 3.5% above base rate.
Shared Infrastructure & Community Life
The common house is at the heart of the community and includes communal cooking and eating facilities, laundry facilities, meeting space, play area, office and guest rooms. The site design is based around a car-free home zone, communal gardens, beautiful green spaces, areas for growing food and ample cycle storage. Food plays an important role in LILAC – residents meet twice a week to eat together in the Common House, creating space to talk, share and build the links that sustain the community.
Impact & Recognition
Residents report increased financial security, wellbeing, and carbon savings compared to typical UK households. The use of natural, high-insulating materials such as straw and lime, plus reduced car use, home composting, vegetarian diets, water-saving, and bulk food purchasing achieved an energy reduction of one-third compared to a typical UK house.
The project has become a centre-stage example in the UK Government’s announcement of a new £170 million community-led housing fund. It was recently included in a UN report as an excellent example of the UN’s sustainable development goals in architectural practice. Since 2015, Leeds Community Homes (LCH) was founded by World Habitat Award winners Canopy and LILAC to support community-led housing across Leeds.
Why This Matters
LILAC demonstrates that permanently affordable housing, genuine community participation, and ecological responsibility can coexist within an urban neighbourhood. The model works not because it retreats from the city, but because it reimagines what collective ownership and shared living can look like in the middle of it – keeping money circulating locally, allowing mixed incomes to live alongside each other, and building structures where decisions belong to the people who inhabit them. The scheme has inspired similar projects internationally, proving the concept travels beyond a single site or moment.