CLT Network has published its 2024 Community Land Trusts Manifesto, which enables community-led developments to account for at least 5% of UK housing development by 2029
According to the CLT Network, this would enable the completion of 15,000 new homes a year and would generate over £1bn of community wealth.
The manifesto sets out 10 policies that would address common barriers to community
development, ownership, and agency for CLTs that are creating and managing community
homes and assets, sustainable energy projects or stewarding land for biodiversity.
What are the policies outlined in the manifesto?
Housing, regeneration, and high streets
-
Community-led development sites
To give Local and Neighbourhood Plans the ability to allocate sites and parcels of large sites for community development.
2. Large site stewardship
To require that community assets are owned and stewarded by a democratic and accountable body and promote opportunities for CLTs to commission and codesign more of these assets with councils, developers and housing associations.
3. Community-led regeneration
To enable residents to form a CLT to have greater agency in the redevelopment of social housing estates and other important assets in partnership with councils, housing associations and developers, including reviving the regulations for the Right to Transfer.
4. Affordable housing pre-development finance
To provide for enablers of community-led development to agree on strategic grants with Homes England, the Welsh Government and the GLA to draw down finance for pre-development work, working with communities to acquire sites and gain planning permission for community-approved designs, and bring these de-risked projects to partner developers and housing associations.
5. Leasehold and commonhold
To replace leasehold with commonhold as the default arrangement but maintain exemptions for CLTs, and ensure reforms protect the CLT governance model.
A community ownership strategy
6. A community ownership fund
To enable the purchase of any asset that the community deems of social, economic or environmental value and with a funding stream to develop new sector-based intermediaries.
7. A community growth lab
To provide a £150m endowment to support the development of the ‘missing market’ of delivery and finance intermediaries, which will support community ownership at scale.
8. A Community Right to Buy
A right of first refusal to buy assets of community value and public assets for sale at an independently valued price.
Rethinking land
9. Review policies and funding for nature restoration and farming
This will incentivise support for community ownership of nature and farming projects.
10. Establishing land commissions
To reform land markets, embed social purpose in land ownership, and promote greater community ownership of land.
Tom Chance, CEO of the Community Land Trust Network, commented: “Using CLTs,
communities now own over 2,000 affordable homes, green spaces, shops, pubs and
workplaces in England and Wales, with many more in the pipeline. But for many, reaching
completion has been an incredible struggle against a system that doesn’t recognise
community agency.
“If we want to build enough high quality community homes and get investment into left
behind communities we need to see these policy changes.”
