There is an unhelpful tendency in the social/community sector to focus on a narrow number of highly marketable community projects and say – they’ve proven the concept, let’s replicate them! To view replication at scale as a matter of sharing compelling case studies so that others can follow their example. But it rarely works like that, at least not at any scale, and especially not in domains like property development and housing where projects take at least 5 years and must contend with a system hostile to any kind of new entrant. (When we talk about scale, we rarely define what we mean. Do we want 100 similar projects? One in every city, town and village? 5% of the market share? The unspoken ambiguity lets us off the hook, permits us to celebrate small-scale success with challenge.) Often, these success stories have been enabled by specific local factors – the…
Tag: <span>Community land trusts</span>
This question is one I have been asking myself in recent weeks. How do I – as a white person who enjoys various kinds of privilege – respond to the challenges the Black Lives Matter posts? After weeks (or years) of listening and reading, I’m now going to try to write something that picks up some aspects that worry me, and some challenges I’ve set for myself.
Tonight I listened to an inspiring group of Brixton residents who are taking the housing crisis into their own hands: setting up a Community Land Trust to build 300 homes for rent, owned by the community and let at rents linked to local incomes. Their challenge, as one board member put it, is to be seen as credible by the powers that be.
As the election for the Mayor of London next year looms on the horizon, candidates are pledging to build more homes in the capital. But targets are no use to anybody unless they are backed up with a credible plan, and in London the biggest challenge is that the housing market is broken, dysfunctional, pining for the fjords.
After packed weekends at weddings and the Green Party conference, and with my fiancee away for a week, I’ve spent a very nice weekend doing those things I always mean to do. Top of my list was to build a cold frame-come-greenhouse for overwintering my herbs. One salvaged broken chair, a trip to the DIY store and a few hours work later and I had fashioned the rather nice frame pictured opposite. It is sitting on our small balcony, the only space available to most Londoners. I’m not really sure which of the strawberry plants, rosemary, mint, coriander, broad-leafed parsley and the chives will survive the winter but at least they now have a cosy little added help. In between ironing, cleaning, sit-ups and press-ups, I’ve also caught up on some of the debate following the autumn Green Party conference. No mention online of my motion introducing policy on Community…