Community Land Trust, a possibility for Ashton Green

30th November, 2011

The Overview Select Committee (OSC) considered the proposals about the major housing development at Ashton Green.  This development will see 3000 homes built on a site north of Beaumont Leys. The proposal is to enter into long term partnership with a private sector developer. This partnership will be based on several criteria including sustainability, speed of delivery and so on. We asked for Community Land Trusts to be included, and Assistant Mayor Ted Cassidy agreed, saying it was ‘a great idea’.

OSC were given a short briefing note on Community Land Trusts (CLT). A CLT is a way of building new affordable houses that ensures they stay affordable into the future. It is non-profit, community based organisation run by volunteers that develops housing at permanently affordable levels for long term community benefits.

It does this by separating the value of the building from the land it stands on.  The CLT holds the land in trust for the long term benefit of the community, benefiting many generations of residents.

In the case of shared-equity homes, fixing the resale percentage enables occupiers to pay for the use of buildings and services at prices they can afford. The value of land, subsidies, planning gain and other equity benefits are permanently locked in by the CLT who holds the asset in trust for long-term community benefit.

CLTs can partner with housing associations and the Council has the power to grant them land and development finance.

More information can be found at the CLT website

If you are interested in this please let me know. The first stage would be to set up a CLT and this will need volunteers.