Building Sustainable Communities from the Grassroots: How Community Land Trusts Can Create Social Sustainability

Abstract

The intention to build ‘sustainable communities’ has been on the political agenda at least since 2003 (ODPM, 2003), but there is a continuing debate about how this strategy can best be achieved. For at least a decade, the rate of construction of new homes has been insufficient to meet the level of need, particularly of affordable housing, in both urban and rural areas. In response, central government is determined to increase the rate of construction of all forms of tenure and explore new forms of delivery through the formation of collaborative arrangements and by creating a larger role for community-based approaches, including development trusts, housing associations and, in particular, Community Land Trusts (CLTs). CLTs engage local communities in the production of housing to meet local needs and include a number of organizational and financial features to ensure ‘sustainability’ in perpetuity. A recent definition of CLTs is that they are:Not for profit organizations which allow the community and other stakeholders to take control of and manage assets. They are a flexible concept taking many different legal structures and forms, but they generally have a number of key principles in common. They are a way of acquiring land and property and holding them for the benefit of the community usually for the provision of affordable housing but also affordable workspace and the provision of community facilities and green spaces. (Northern Housing Consortium, 2007, p17)The Housing White Paper (Department of Communities and Local Government, 2007) set an ambitious target of an additional 240,000 homes per year and three million new homes to be constructed by 2020. The scale of the challenge is substantial because not only must the production of new housingbe increased, but there is also a requirement to create well-designed developments with the full range of services and infrastructure where people want to live. In addition, new environmental standards are being introduced to reduce energy consumption, increase water conservation and achieve zero carbon emissions by 2016 (CLG, 2006).