About community land trusts

It is often difficult for people to find affordable accommodation in their local community.  Community Land Trusts (CLTs) seek to address this problem by creating affordable housing and community resources through the co-operative ownership of land by the local community. Land is acquired by community groups (usually below its market rate) through public investment, planning gain or philanthropic or charitable gifts and is held in perpetuity by the local community.

The value of the land, plus subsidies and other equity benefits, is permanently locked in to the CLT, on behalf of the local community and future occupiers. Local residents and businesses form CLTs in order to plan and deliver long-term affordable and sustainable development of this land, which will benefit the local area and its inhabitants for generations to come.

In 2008 an official definition of Community Land Trusts was laid out in the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008, Part 2, Chapter 1, Clause 79. This says that a Community Land Trust is a corporate body which:

1) 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 a 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.

2) is established under arrangements which are expressly designed to ensure that:

• any profits from its activities will be used to benefit the local community (without 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.

The Community Land Trust concept emerged in the United States in the late 1960s, and some early successes meant that community groups around the world were keen to adopt the CLT model. In the United Kingdom interest in the model has escalated with a number of projects currently in development.