What are CLTs
Introductory 'CLTs in a Nutshell' download here
A CLT is a non-profit, community-based organisation run by volunteers that develops housing or other assets at permanently affordable levels for long-term community benefit. It is a cost-driven model, where the CLT ensures that the occupiers to pay for the use of buildings and services at prices they can afford. The difference between the cost of the home or asset and the market value are permanently locked in by the CLT who holds the asset or equity in trust for long-term community benefit.
Watch a short-film on the progress of the CLT movement in England to date and the aspirations for the future growth and development.
Seeing is Believing, Community Land Trusts 2011 from WeeFlee Productions on Vimeo.
Diverse sector but common aims
CLTs range in size, can be rural or urban and provide a variety of housing tenures as well as other community facilities, including workspaces, energy generation, community food and farming. Despite the diversity in the sector, CLTs tend to have in common the aims of:
- Meeting local housing needs.
- Providing long-term community benefit.
CLTs also take a variety of legal forms. A CLT is usually constituted as an Industrial and Provident Society or Company Limited by Guarantee, and may or may not have charitable status. CLTs are legally defined in the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008, Section 79 stated below:
A Community Land Trust is a corporate body which:
- is established for the express purpose of furthering the social, economic and environmental interests of a local community by acquiring and managing land and other assets in order -
- to provide benefit to the local community
- to ensure that the assets are not sold or developed except in a manner which the trust's members think benefits the local community
- is established under arrangements which are expressly designed to ensure that:
- any profits from its activities will be used to benefit the local community (otherwise than by being paid directly to members)
- individuals who live or work in the specified area have the opportunity to become members of the trust (whether or not others can also become members)
- the members of a trust control it.
History of the model
The CLT model as a vehicle for community development began in the United States and has been adapted to meet the demands of local communities in the UK.
A National CLT Demonstration Programme to develop CLTs in England ran from 2006 until 2008, led by Community Finance Solutions, with support from Carnegie UK Trust and Tudor Trust. The findings from the Programme can be found on the website in publications.
Specialised funding was subsequently developed through the CLT Fund, established in 2008 and ran by several charitable and ethical investors.
The National CLT Network has since been established to promote and support the work of CLTs. As a consequence of this work the use of CLTs has spread to all parts of England and Wales as local communities seek a model which can help them overcome the challenges specific to their local context.
The video below shows a presentation by John Davis - a pioneer of the Community Land Trust model and Board Member of the Champlain Housing Trust in Vermont joined by Dev Goetschius, Executive Director of Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County (HLTSC) on the history of the CLT movement in the US.
Source: www.eastlondonclt.co.uk
CLT activity in England and Wales
There has been consistent growth in CLTs over the last decade and there are now over 80 community organisations that define themselves as a CLT, ranging from fledgling organisations that are just starting out, to CLTs that have developed three phases of housing and other assets.
The map below demonstrates the current level of CLT activity in England and Wales.
Stage of development
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Ambition for CLT but not yet formally constituted |
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Formally constituted as a CLT and working up scheme |
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Significant progress working up scheme. Planning permission pending or granted. |
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On site
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Completed
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