Housing Update – Wearing my Land Trust Hat

I’m conscious I have not said much on here since my blog last October – if you missed it, catch up here. Never sure what hat I’m wearing but both as a local Town Councillor and Chair of a Community Land Trust, I’ve been beavering away.

Thanks to a grant from St Just Town Council we are working with Agile Homes on bringing forward a small pilot project, probably of 3 homes and likely on a very small plot owned by Cornwall Council, in St Just. This grant is to get all our ducks in a row and ensure we can make this a financially viable project, BEFORE deciding to make a planning application and starting that journey to deliver a few homes.

I can hear some of you saying “What is the point of 3 homes, when many more in our community need a home?” If you take a look on the Agile Properties website you will see they are different to homes we are use to seeing pop up in our community. So, a pilot, to ensure they can work here, seems a good plan. We can also learn from the experience of providing 3 homes to make the next project bigger but successful. A key factor in providing homes to local people that are affordable is getting hold of land at no or very little cost – more likely to happen, if we can show owners of land what we want to do. Once we have a pilot project, people with family members or friends that need a local home might come forward and offer land for free to house them, but allow us to provide a few more homes for others.

From little acorns we hope mighty oaks might grow – or from 3 homes, a small community will follow!

We also want to hear from those in housing need or are fearful that they might lose their home. If you are willing to talk with us, make contact with me, using my contact details on this website.