Community Land Trusts are locally-based organisations that allow communities to own, deliver and manage affordable homes and other assets for long-term community benefit.  The annual Community Land Trust Conference this year has the title of ‘The Big Opportunity’. 

The Carnegie UK Trust has been a leading player in encouraging and supporting local groups to form Community Land Trusts and has helped established the National Community Land Trust Network which is being hosted by the National Housing Federation.

Carnegie UK Trust Chief Executive, Martyn Evans, says the Community Land Trusts movement does indeed have A Big Opportunity:

“Over one hundred Community Land Trusts have been formed and have delivered nearly fifty new homes so far with around one hundred more on the way to completion.  

“The challenge now is to create something much bigger and much more sustainable and, to do that, we need to get the funding model right by persuading lenders to see Community Land Trusts as solid and safe places to invest.  Governments across the UK are making the right noises and the UK Government’s Localism Bill potentially offers communities new rights in this area.  I hope this conference will allows us to grab the big opportunities and turn the good intentions of Government and communities into new homes and community owned assets.”

During the conference, delegates will be joined by leading players from the 5000-strong Land Trust movement in the USA for the Carnegie Challenge Debate, sponsored by Carnegie UK Trust.  The Carnegie UK Trust has also sponsored a series of short case studies on film, examining the benefits being delivered for communities by Community Land Trusts, and how of some of the barriers to achieving support for CLTs have been addressed.

Coordinator of the National Community Land Trust Network, Catherine Harrington, says she hopes 2011 will mark the stepping-off point for a new confidence in an expanding Community Land Trusts movement:

“The National Community Land Trust Network has been working with Government, the Homes and Communities Agency, Tenant Services Authority, the Charity Commission and others to create the right environment for the community-led housing sector to grow and thrive.  The Network also also offers the all important support, resources and training to Community Land Trusts, both long established and new starters. 

Today, on the day of the Annual Conference, we are holding the first AGM of the National CLT Network, to mark the start of the Network as an independent, transparent and sustainable membership organisation with a promising future ahead”

Notes to Editors

There are at present almost 100 community organisations in the UK that define themselves as a Community Land Trust.

The Community Land Trusts movement believes the publication of the Localism Bill and, in particular, the proposals for the Community Right to Build, Community Right to Buy, Community Right to Challenge and the Right to Reclaim Land, as well as an appetite in communities to take control, offer a real prospect for the Community Land Trust sector to grow and prosper.

The three organisations  highlighted in the Carnegie UK Trust case study films are High Bickington Community Property Trust; Lyvennet Community Land Trust; and St Minver Community Land Trust

The speakers are the Carnegie Challenge debate “Learning from over the pond – CLTs in the United States”, chaired by Martyn Evans, are:
• Dev Goetschius, President, US National CLT Network and Executive Director, Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County, Oakland California;
• John Emmeus Davis, Partner, Burlington Associates in Community Development, Burlington, Vermont;
• Bob Paterson, Director, Community Land and Finance and Visiting Social Enterprise Fellow at Community Finance Solutions research unit at the University of Salford.

The Carnegie UK Trust works to develop evidence-based policy to support beneficial change for people living in the UK and Ireland. The Trust is one of over twenty foundations worldwide endowed by Scots American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie
For more information or to speak to the authors, please call John Macgill, media adviser to the Carnegie UK Trust on 0131 557 7727 (including out of hours).