Entrusting communities with Land?

The Department for Communities and Local Government is consulting on the role for Community Land Trusts (CLTs) in delivering the Government's target "to provide 240,000 more homes a year in England by 2016". The Government states that CLTs, alongside housing associations, local authorities, Local Housing Companies and housing co-operatives , has a role to play in meeting this target.

CLTs’ origins can be traced back to the Chartists and the struggle for land reform. The aims of the movement were "To purchase land in order to demonstrate to the Working Class of the kingdom the value of land, as a means of making them independent of the grinding capitalist."

Despite the invocation of such a radical tradition, the Government seeks to co-opt CLTS rather than to rekindle any revolutionary verve. In fact, the consultation document sets out the Government’s goal to "help more people to own their own home". The Government then makes the bizarre statement that it "believes that this not only enables them to achieve their aspirations but also helps to meet additional objectives such as improving public services".

As with foundation hospitals, the Government is seeking to subvert co-operative terminology with CLTs. The document sets out a role for CLTs to be little more than providers of shared equity and part ownership schemes much like any housing association.

CLTs are supposed to be bolstered through the Community Land Trust Fund – which has £2m of loan funding on offer to develop CLTs – which makes them rather insignificant when the Government has already stated it is investing £8.4bn in housing over the next three years. The £2m fund drop in the housing need ocean may well be unattractive since "interest on such loans will be charged at a rate that will cover administrative costs, plus an element of profit to enable the fund to increase".

Nevertheless there are opportunities to empower communities who can establish their own CLT. A CLT must:
• provide a benefit to the local community; and
• ensure that the assets are not sold or developed except in a manner which the trust's members think benefits the local community.
A CLT must also ensure that:
• any profits from its activities will be used to benefit the local community;
• individuals who live or work in the specified area have the opportunity to become members of the trust; and
• the members of the trust control it.

Therefore the radical democratic origins remain, and – once established – CLTs will be prime candidates to be offered public assets, which will be transferred by the soon to be established 'Asset Transfer Unit' (ATU). The consultation states that the Government is currently reviewing the structures "to enable [CLTs] to successfully manage and own public assets". However, community activists should not get too excited – the ATU "will promote and support an increase in asset transfer . . . through the promotion of public-private-third sector partnerships".

The consultation document can be downloaded from the DCLG website and the deadline for responses is 31st December 2008.