Investing in sustainable housing solutions

The team at Bunker Housing Co-operative are delighted that they have already raised over 60% of their target in the initial round of funding for their brilliant housing solutions in Brighton and Hove. The Co-operative is actively tackling the housing crisis in the area by building new, affordable homes for local people on low incomes.

As well as giving people who are struggling with increasing housing costs the chance to rent a home at an affordable price, the dedicated team at Bunker are creating the highest quality of homes that will be co-operatively owned and managed and sustainably built, with the future of the planet in mind.

Their aim is to raise £150,000 in loan stock via Ethex to complete the initial phase of their current plan to build homes on multiple sites across Brighton & Hove. The sites are all making use of vacant council-owned land and this initial funding raise will help them create two 2 and 3-bedroom homes that will be assigned to a waiting list of families in desperate need of affordable housing.

The Bunker team believe that sustainable, affordable, high-quality homes should not just be a luxury for the selected few – so they are committed to demonstrating a workable alternative.

Bunker has already self-built two houses, which are homes to some of the co-operative members and their overall plan is to deliver a further 15 homes by 2025. Their vision is of a series of small self-built developments of affordable housing, providing a safe, secure environment for families.

Sustainability is central to Bunker in everything they do and this is demonstrated in several ways.

The Bunker membership is made up of low-income people who currently live in private rented accommodation. They are building high-quality homes using the most economic and eco-friendly construction methods available to them that will remain affordable in perpetuity. Not just in terms of truly affordable rents but also affordable bills.

The homes they build are both beautiful and good for the people who live in them, and for the planet, achieving high levels of sustainability and the highest energy performance ratings.  Bunker have developed a transferable model which can be replicated in different sites so that they are able to deliver all their projects to the same standards, within similar cost parameters and timescales.

Their existing pilot development at Plumpton Road - completed in April 2020 - delivered an innovative scheme that has received national and local acclaim and in 2020 Bunker received the Breakthrough Housing Co-op of the year award from the Confederation of Co-operative Housing. 

As a part of the co-operative movement, Bunker is constantly looking at ways to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all". Bunker is progressing work towards these goals in the following ways:

SDG 11: To make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Bunker’s homes increase access to de-commodified and collectively owned, adequate, safe and permanently affordable housing. They enable inclusive, participatory and sustainable planning and co-operative management of homes in the area.

They work closely with SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) to ensure they use modern methods of construction to reduce the embodied carbon in the fabric of the building.

SDG 7: To ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and clean energy

By using high quality & high environmental performance materials, the homes are highly insulated and they are working with a local energy service cooperative BHESCO (Brighton and Hove Energy Services Cooperative) to design, supply and fit eco-technology and on-site clean energy generation, reducing the operational carbon over the life span of the building.

As well as the exemplary sustainability credentials, Bunker homes are light and spacious, with large floor-to-ceiling triple-glazed windows, and well-proportioned, habitable rooms, designed to meet or exceed National and Local Housing Space Standards and requirements as well as to accommodate future adaptation to suit the specific access needs of residents.

Every home they have planned has private outdoor space with communal areas given over to social, food growing and wildflower spaces. Homes have native chalk grassland green roofs, native trees planted, and bat and bird boxes installed across the different sites to encourage wildlife.

In order for Bunker to continue to achieve these high standards for the future of housing in Brighton &Hove, they need to reach their target raise from the loan stock offer that’s currently live on Ethex and you can be a part of it.

People can invest from as little as £250 to help them create the next 2 homes in their portfolio while targeting a return of 2%.  These homes will be based at Dunster Close and work has already begun to prepare for this construction. Just last week they had geological engineers along to take samples and test for any contaminants. Bunker has also commissioned a structural engineer and their architects are preparing the technical drawings. When they have successfully achieved the target of £150,000 in their loan stock raise, they will have the lease reviewed and start the actual clearance of the site, initial groundworks and connection of services.

If you want to be a part of the future success of Bunker and help them to prove that this innovative model of housing is the future for homes in cities and towns across the UK, visit their profile on the Ethex site to find out more.
Capital is at risk and returns are not guaranteed