1. Community Land Trusts and Co-operative
Place Making
Pat Conaty - Co-operatives UK
Seoul Metropolitan Government
South Korea
17 March 2015
2. 2
Co-operative Place Making: A Creative Idea
Co-operatives: circa 1 billion members internationally and
providing services weekly to 3 billion people
Co-operatives: have transformative potential through public-
social partnerships between citizens and the state
Democracy: co-operative membership is growing while political
party and trade union membership is declining
Social Economy sector including both social enterprises and co-
operatives are growing fast in South Korea
4. Unaffordable Cities – ‘Generation Rent’
Public sector employees (UK) – 60% earn under £16,000 yearly and
average 2014 house prices were over 15 times this level
1996 – 2007: UK house prices rose by 204% and wages by 94%
Mortgage deposits: typically today £7,500 to £15,000
Market madness: Average national rent (2014) £720 per month and
average national mortgage £658 per month
Community Land Trusts in UK, USA and Canada offer solutions
5. Affordable Housing in Britain
Main providers:
(i) Municipal and district government: major provider but
housing stock has been sold since 1980s and stock
increasingly transferred to social landlords (including
ALMOs)
(ii)Housing associations: the favoured non-profit provider –
build mainly for rental or shared ownership. This sector
includes a small housing co-op movement
(iii)Community Land Trusts – new entrant with potential
and new vehicle for intermediate market
6. Community Land Trusts: Mutualising Land
1. CLTs own land under a non-profit multi-stakeholder
democratic governance model for improving and
preserving the affordability of housing for renters and
owners
2. Home ownership option – CLT owns land, individuals
own homes. Lease agreements include resale formula,
equity share or deed covenants to preserve
affordability.
3. Rental option – CLT owns land. CLT can own housing
or lease land to a housing non-profit or a co-operative.
4. Other applications: managed workspace, community
buildings, urban farms, community supported
agriculture and for co-operative energy.
9
7. Community Land Trusts Today
• USA: first CLTs in 1970s - but most projects since
1995 (250 CLTs nationally)
• Scotland: community land buy-outs in rural areas
in 1990s with support from Scottish Parliament
since 2003 (25 CLTs)
• England: national demonstration project since
2006, mostly rural (40 CLTs set up) – CLTs
recognised in law (2008)
• Belgium and Canada: CLTs rather new
8. CLT Pioneer - Scotland
Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust – Land for People
(i) Community buy-out of the island for £1.5 million:
struggle for decades with absentee landlords
(ii) CLT established in 1997 – has developed community
owned businesses: including shop, tourist facilities,
workspace, hydro power plants and wind farm
(energy now 98% renewable)
(iii) Successful struggle led to Community Land Unit and
Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 giving communities
a pre-emptive ‘right to buy’
9. Cornwall CLT – Public Social Partnership
CLT Umbrella for Cornwall county: 105 homes on 12 sites:
1. Technical expertise partnership with Cornwall Rural Housing
2. Pre-development finance: Revolving Loan Fund partnership with the
local government and loans at zero interest
3. Construction finance: Revolving Loan Fund capital from the Public
Works Loan Board at 3.5%
4. Division of labour: Cornwall Rural Housing develops the rental
housing and Cornwall CLT and six local CLTs co-develop the housing
for sale
5. Cornwall CLT and 9 local CLTs (one federation): 100 more homes
under development
10. Burlington, Vermont
A made in the U.S.A Land Reform Story
• CLT started in 1984
with a $200,000 grant
from the city
• Now over 2300 units
under Champlain
Housing Trust
• Affordability of
portfolio has
increased by 20%
over 25 years.
9
11. 11
THE CLT
Putting More of the Gains in the Market Price
onto the Community Balance Sheet
Community
Control of
Land
Preserves
Affordability
Source: Champlain Housing Trust
12. CLTs: Greater Affordability Over Time-
Rental and Ownership Units
12
50% AMI 60% AMI 70% AMI 80% AMI
1984
2002
2009
Over 25 years, homes in the Burlington CLT
rental units and owned-occupied units became
MORE affordable.
13. CLT’s Perform Better than Private Property
in a Crisis
10
National
Community Land
Trust Network
(NCLTN) and
Mortgage
Bankers
Association
(MBA) data for
mortgage
delinquency and
foreclosure, 4th
quarter 2009
National
Community Land
Trust Network
(NCLTN) and
Mortgage
Bankers
Association
(MBA) data for
mortgage
delinquency and
foreclosure, 4th
quarter 2009
Source: Champlain Housing Trust
16. Evolution of a Public-Social Partnership
City of Vancouver
Head lease
(99 years)
Housing agreements
(Affordability obligations)
Vancity
Owner/Operator AgreementsSub-leases
Fraserview Co-
op
(79 units)
Fraserview Co-
op
(82 units)
Total of 161 units
over two sites
HFBC Housing
Society (114)
Katherine
Sanford Housing
Society (48)
Social Purpose Developments
VancityCHF BC Terra
Housing
Project consultants
Architects
Contractors
Legal advisors
Community Housing Land
Trust Foundation
Tikva Housing
Society (16)
Tikva Housing
Society (16)
Site #1 Site #3Site #2 Site #4
Vancouver CLT
355 Homes
Vancouver CLT
355 Homes
17. Resilient Cities through Co-operative
Place Making
Housing that is 25%-60% below the market price
Use of Public and Community Assets for Community Benefit
Surplus generated equally shared by city and CLT Must be
reinvested by both partners in affordable housing
A Public-Social Partnership that demonstrating that Reclaiming
the Commons is positively practical
14
18. CLT Development Steps
The Commonwealth Wheel: SELF-OP
1. Social (community and stakeholder engagement)
2. Environmental (site selection, planning, design)
3. Legal (company type, leases, tenure, etc)
4. Financial (pre-development, development, etc)
5. Operational (Directors, staff, agents, etc)
6. Physical (procurement, development partners, etc)
19. Delivering Affordable Housing
Intermediate market housing
Social Housing Rent to
purchase models
Equity purchase
models
Outright Sale
£10,000 £14,000 £18,000 £22,000 £26,000 £30,000
Levels of household income
A typical CLT is currently about delivering intermediate market
homes but sustainable communities are about more than affordable
housing!
20.
21. Securing land and Local Planning
Permission
• Local Government Act - Section 106
agreements: to secure planning this encourages
developers to provide land or a ‘commuted sum’
• Rural exception sites: allows land to be
accessed at near agricultural prices for meeting
local needs for housing development
• Urban areas in England and Wales – difficulties
to get national policy support but this is being
achieved across Wales and in some English
cities: Bristol, Liverpool and Middlesborough
22. Local Housing Needs Survey
Methods to appraise the local rural market:
(i) Local housing market price appraisal
(ii)Waiting lists and municipality data assessment
(iii)Local door to door surveys in target local areas
including public meetings on affordable housing
development and local needs
(iv) Analysis of demand and affordability by age groups,
income levels, for particular property sizes and for
tenure (to rent or to buy)
23. CLT Appraisal Process
Pre-development Feasibility Work
• Market appraisal and affordability design &
selection criteria: through housing needs survey
• Site selection: through options appraisal
• Costs appraisal including Sustainable construction
methods and viable options
• CLT model: options appraisal
• Outline financial model for preferred site
• Report for the planning authority and target
funders (national government and lenders)
24. CLT Type: Issues and Options
1. Objective: to preserve affordability in the long
term locking in the land assets and a resale
formula
•Equity purchase (common form)
•Rent to equity
2. Obstacles: Right to Buy legislation - leasehold
enfranchisement and ‘Rule against Perpetuities’
•Mutual Homeownership Society (Co-op model)
•Declaration of trust (to be tested)
25. Mutual Homeownership (MHOS)
• Housing Co-operatives owns the dwellings
• Separate CLT company owns the land and provides
a lease to the Housing Co-operative
• New members make a 5% deposit
• Mortgage is corporate
• Full repairing lease based on 30% to 37% of
household income
• Lease payments convert to equity stakes
• Co-op pays members leaving their equity less 10%
26. Stages of the CLT Journey
Detailed
Plannin
gIntr
o
Costo
schem
Building
the
model
Ti
me
Completed
Scheme
(Occupancy)Construction
27. Feasibilit
y day
one day of
advice to
help you
identify
the steps to
take
Technical
assistance
grant
a small
grant to
fund initial
costs
Pre-
developmen
t
finance
funding your
project prior
to planning
permission
Development
finance
funding the
costs of
construction
You can apply directly to any part of the fund
Support from The CLT Fund
28. ConstructionDetailed planning Occupancy
Building the
model
High Risk
Low Risk
Grants, donations, equity
Gifts in kind
Unsecured loans
Senior
debt
Work at risk
declining risk, increased
amount of money required
Matched finance – a summary
29. SELF–OP: Resources and Funding
Key elements:
1.Land at very low-cost is essential
2.Sweat-equity: expertise from professional stakeholders
3.CLT Fund: Technical help and feasibility grant
4.CLT Fund: Pre-development risk finance
5.CLT Fund: portion of construction finance (30%)
6.CLT equity: for bridging funding and risk capital (grants, share
issue, retained funds, etc)
7.Construction finance: social banks
8.Long-term finance (part sale): banks and building societies
9.Long-term finance (rental): Community Land and Finance
30. Lessons Learned
1.The Commonweath Wheel works across the full
range of co-operative place making situations
2.Has demonstrated that the process can be
codifed from small to larger projects for
knowledge transfer and dissemination
3.Greatly simplifies the process for participants –
both community groups, service providers and
local government
4.Community Land Partnerships can provide a co-
operative place making framework
5.Tool is extendable to other applications: energy,
workspace, urban farms/gardens
6.Honest Broker – for all the talents and a
transparent, empowerment tool, seeking mutual
stakeholders to utilise.
34. Community Land Trust Benefits
Subsidiarity: a vehicle for resilient, democratic and
decentralised societies
Climate change: can unite a wide diversity of joint action
on low-carbon solutions (housing, food, energy,
recycling, green jobs, etc)
Economic security: can collectivise risk and provide
affordable housing, green energy and food
Social capital and partnership: requires creative
community, business, municipal and social finance
collaboration
35. Community Land Trusts and Local Food
1. Intervale in Burlington, Vermont: has developed a CLT for local food on 200
acres of dumping ground (6 ft of rubbish) – now a ‘city garden’ of a dozen
community farms supplying 7% fresh food for town of 35,000.
2. Evergreen Co-ops in Cleveland, Ohio: Green City Growers – largest city farm
in the USA with 3 acre greenhouse and 10 acre site growing 6 million heads
of lettuce and 300,000 pounds of herbs yearly through a worker co-op in the
city’s poorest inner city area
3. Community Land Advisory Service: new project of the National Federation
of City Farms and Gardens and now underway in England, Wales and
Scotland to create Community Land Banks for community gardens and food
growing in cities, towns and villages
36. Housing Opportunity: Ageing energy
inefficient housing disrepair
Public-Social Partnership models in Action
1.KfW bank: ‘green lending’ through Co-op and municipal banks at 2.65% - 250,000
jobs created and €1 billion invested annually
2.Evergreen Co-ops, Cleveland: Ohio Co-operative Solar: combined green housing
retrofit and solar energy fitting for homes and public sector buildings: Social
investment capital at 1% for worker co-op start ups
3. NeighborWorks (USA) assisted 1.2 million low-income households since 1991
– more than 230 urban and rural delivery networks in 4,400 local communities
– have mobilised investment of $18.1 billion since 2001
– Model being replicated in the UK with local government partners
37. Duplex Title
33International Institute for Self-governance
Roads, water,
Sewerage,
electricity,
phone, shops
bus services
schools,
factories,
hospitals,
offices &
entertainment
Roads,
water,Sewers
electricity,
phone, shops
bus services
schools,
factories,
hospitals.
Roads,
water,Sewers
electricity,
phone, shops,
bus services
schools.
Roads,
water,Sewers
electricity.
Roads, water.
Village
Township
Suburban
Centre.
Regional
Centre.
Central
Business
District
Two components of property LLvaluePPu
1. Investment on the site & site specific amenities;
2. External investments servicing the site
Two different types of property rights
required for efficient and equitable resource allocation:
1. “Dynamic Lease (DL)” or Strata title for space occupied, &
2. Equity in Community Land Bank (CLB) capturing external values
Public Investment ImpactPublic Investment Impact
38. Co-operative Land Bank
1.Extension of London Jubilee line (11 stations) in 1999
2. Cost of public investment by taxpayers: £3.5 billion
3. Urban land value uplift: £13.5 billion
4. Co-operative Land Bank (CLB) is an urban district CLT
5. CLB can self-finance affordable housing, renewable energy and
workspace for an Eco-town (5000) or a new city
6. Precedents: Letchworth Garden City (33,000) and Irvine CLT
(USA) – both similar size for the master plan
7. Commons Sense (2013): Co-operatives UK report
39. CLT Networks and Case Studies
For further information on Community Land
Trusts see case studies at:
UK: See
http://www.communitylandtrusts.org.uk/ncltn
USA: see http://www.cltnetwork.org/