Meet our new Project Manager John........
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We are pleased to announce the appointment of John Bloxsom to work as a part-time Project Officer with OCLT for at least the next six months. This has been possible due to generous donations by two of our benefactors. Thanks so much to both of them.
Oxfordshire Community Land Trust is recruiting...
Oxfordshire Community Land Trust has a vacancy for a Project Officer to work on two very exciting prospects: i) getting our first housing project to the construction phase and ii) working with our Board and partner organisations to create a Community-Led Housing Hub for the county and beyond.
AGM Report
We had a very positive AGM in SSMJ Church on Cowley Road on September 25th. We reflected on the year which was another tough one, not least because housing costs continue to rise well above pre-recession levels and housing policy and funding continues to overwhelmingly support volume housebuilders. As many of you know, the year was book-ended by a flurry of optimism and passion on two unsuccessful site bids with Homes for Oxford, the first being Wolvercote Paper Mill at the start of the year in May 2016 and The Irving Building in early 2017.
Help us get support for Community-Led Housing into Local Plan
You have until 25th August to DO something. If you have some energy and 10 or 20 minutes for this, read on and find out what you can do.
The Local Plan Preferred Options is long and complex but this is democracy at work and we need to invest some time if we want to help the planners get it right for us to be able to deliver more community-led homes. We’ve tried to make it easy for you so you really can do something quickly.
Here’s HOW:
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A Community Land Trust (a CLT) is an organisation set up to own and manage land by and for a local community. Through this organisation, the land is owned by the community in perpetuity and used for the explicit benefit of that community. It might be used for any purpose which benefits the community to which it is linked: housing, workspace, leisure or horticulture. There are various legal structures which can underpin a CLT (read more) but one key aspect of the idea is that the land cannot be sold off for private gain. Through this mechanism (called an asset lock), the CLT aims to ensure permanent and affordable access to the land for whichever purpose the community needs.
One of the biggest needs, even in this time of recession, is to provide land for affordable housing. Increasing numbers of working people find it difficult or impossible to find a secure and affordable place to live. There is also a great shortage of social housing and many working families have no access to them. (read more section to include stats about numbers waiting in Oxon, ratios of average price to av earnings). CLTs offer a way to provide permanently affordable land (it is permanently owned by the community so doesn’t keep going up in value) for housing and other local needs.
A CLT organisation is set up by a local group of people who get together to DO something to ensure there are more affordable assets for that community. These could be for housing, workspace, food production or leisure. There are various legal mechanisms which can underpin this. OCLT is an Industrial and Provident Society for the Benefit of the Community.
We were registered as an Industrial and Provident society in December 2004 and have been meeting regularly ever since (read more about who we are). In June 2008 we began the process of acquiring a small piece of land in Cumnor Parish (read more under Projects). We aim to build half a dozen affordable homes on this land once Thames Water has replaced the current sewage system. We hope to be able to begin on site by 2012.