Empowering Local Communities? An International Review of Community Land Trusts

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the premise that community land trusts (CLTs) offer a method of delivering affordable housing that empowers local communities and provides democratic management of community assets. The paper provides a comparative analysis of CLT developments in England, Scotland and the USA, reviewing the policy and literature to identify two key approaches that underpin CLTs: an approach to property development that emphasises resale restrictions used to preserve housing use for the CLT's target clientele, and an approach to citizen governance that privileges local communities. The paper identifies a variation of practices that underpin the operation of CLTs in each country and uses the advanced developments in Scotland and the USA to illustrate some of the challenges that remain if the CLT sector in England is to continue its recent growth.