By Ian Bracey | January 25, 2018
I met with the Neighbourhood Plan group today to propose the idea of setting up a Community Land Trust for Waterbeach. One of the emerging Objectives of the Neighbourhood Plan is access to truly affordable housing for local people.
Work carried out by Cambridge ACRE on behalf of the group has already found that there are more than 100 people with a connection to Waterbeach on the affordable housing register, and there are likely many more who aren’t officially on the list.
I proposed that setting up a CLT for Waterbeach would give us a say in how development in the village was undertaken and also give us a vehicle to deliver affordable homes to local people and those with a local connection.
It would also support other parts of the plan, helping form a more sustainable community, where people can work and live in the same place and helping to reduce traffic in the local area. A CLT gives a much wider choice of options that just “Affordable Housing” in the narrow technical definition and can help a wider range of people.
And being community led development it allows everyone in the community to have a say and retains the benefit for the community.
The group were happy for me to start trying to raise awareness of the issue of housing for local people, particularly young local people, and finding out if there was sufficient interest to formally set up a CLT.
Please sign up to the mailing list or contact us if you want to be involved, stay informed or tell us you think it is a good idea.