We did it and survived (so far) a CLTs story Richard Henderson - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

We did it and survived …(so far) – a CLT’s story

Richard Henderson September 2019

We work with the people of the Calder valley to hold property and create sustainable and affordable homes in vibrant communities.

The Calder Valley

Who are we?

Upper Calder valley in West Yorkshire (joint initiative Todmorden, Hebden Bridge) Discussions 2013-2014: Local housing to meet local needs. Focus on community-led affordable housing initiatives We also hold land and buildings for the community Incorporated Nov 2014 as a Community Benefit Society Charitable status with HMRC (exempt charity) Registered Provider status awarded May 2018 Member controlled: 150 local people as members. Ten trustees

Fielden Hall, Todmorden

The CLT is the legal custodian; centre managed by small independent charity Fielden Hall is a community space which was gifted to CVCLT by the owners. The small rent from the Hall is our only regular income. We hold the central area, the hall, which is ‘bookended’ by a house at each end. We are in negotiations to buy the houses and land. This would secure the homes on an affordable rent and provide the opportunity to develop more homes in the grounds.

Our fi first development - Affordable Housing in Walsden

• Six new independent living bungalows for
• lder people
• In Partnership with almshouse charity John

Eastwood Homes (JEH)

• Calderdale Council transferred the land
• Construction began March 2019, due to be

completed by end of 2019

• Funding package: Homes England, John

Eastwood, Quaker Housing Trust, Calderdale MBC, community shares (c £100,000), loan from Unity Trust

Opportunities and Issues

• JEH had reserves to invest but could not obtain

a site.

• CVCLT secured the site from the Council
• A partnership was born - with a ready made

house design, a long waiting list and as flat a site as we are ever going to get But…

• JEH is a small organisation, they are not an RP
• Funding package was complex.
• Risk - Costings had £20,000 contingency built
• in. The Build is £50,000 over budget. We have

sought further investment into our Community Shares.

SITE

Existing JEH homes

Affordable Housing in Hebden Bridge

• Rebuilding a former street of

houses

• Public consultations 2016-2018
• Planning application 2018 (20

homes)

• Declined at planning committee

Feb 2019

• Currently seeking funding for

further work

Development of 20 affordable homes for rent -6 x 1 bed, 4 x 2 bed, 10 x 3 bed ‘ A well considered and considerate scheme’

Raising housing as a public issue

Five public meetings, June- October 2018

• June: So what’s this about a housing crisis?
• July: What can community-led housing achieve?
• August: Sustainable and energy efficient new homes
• September: Ethical investment in community-led

housing

• October: Putting the vision back into social and council

housing

Promoting community-led housing

• One year project
• Funded by Homes England

(Community Housing Fund)

• In partnership with

Calderdale MBC

• Growing and supporting

CLH in Calderdale

• Provides some support for

us – contribution to

• verheads, and we are a

Calderdale CLH.

The short version:

• Investment Partner
• Dec 2017
• Registered Provider
• Pre-application approved Autumn

2017

• Full application submitted Jan 2018
• Request for further info from

Regulator, Mar 2018

• Reply (following trustee meeting)

April 2018

• Further queries from Regulator May
• Taken to panel and approved June

2018

Why did we do it…

Ownership

• Our community to own the homes we’d worked hard to

build (not another, big RP)

Control

• Homes built to the standards we aspired to

Necessity

• For Walsden, JEH isn’t an RP – so somebody needed to be

as we needed the HE grant to make it viable

• HAs like ‘standard’ designs they understand, can cost and

can build and maintain. For High St, and other possible sites, ‘standard’ won’t work

Opportunity

• We had support from some expert resource from Locality

and a local contractor, paid for by remaining money in a Big Potential capacity building grant.

• We had skills on our Board

Ambition

• We aim to create a sustainable organisation through our

early projects and grow to deliver greater social impact

a little naivety

• The process took way more time and effort than we’d

envisaged, over a compressed timescale, and still does.

• 67 page application
• Multiple iterations
• 28 page business plan
• A raft of policies to write and approve
• Multiple attachments:
• Hundreds of hours of detailed work and a big learning curve

What did it take?

=

Key skills needed

Finance – our treasurer is an accountant and economist and is very dedicated Business planning – to write business plans, sensitivity analysis etc. An expert in the RP process and community housing (we bought this in) Housing management experience – three of our Board are, or have worked in housing management for many years Building project management – managing contractors and tendering is a weakness for us. Policy writing - procurement, equality, data protection etc., and access to some to ‘copy’!

Basically, we are running a small, highly regulated company, for free. And for some of us it is close to a full time job!

It doesn’t stop with registration…

We are a Registered Provider, regulated by ROSH, run by volunteers with little income and no staff. This oversight is right because:

• We have received £240,000 of public money, hopefully with more to come
• We will soon have tenants who we need to service and support
• We will have rent to collect and manage

So….we have to adhere to prescribed standards such as:

• Rent formula and standards
• Homes standards – descent homes
• Neighbourhood and Community Standards
• Governance & Financial Viability Standards
• Value for Money Standards
• Tenancy standards
• Tenant involvement and communication standards
• And…we will be audited each year so need quality record keeping and financial

systems and an audit committee

Becoming an RP vs partnering with an RP

• Your partner will be experienced and can

deliver the homes

• They already have all the regulatory
• verheads
• They can cash flow the development and

cover any unexpected costs or work

• Delivers the social benefit relatively quickly
• Lower work load, learning curve and risk

for the CLH trustees But….

• Difficult to impose build and design the

standards you want

• Tenant management may not be as you’d

wish

• Only receive ground rent, don’t own the

buildings

• You can build your organisation as you want
• Can access Homes England grants directly
• You control your sustainability, quality,

space and tenant management (though you still have to persuade the builder…)

• It is easier to develop MMC and homes on

non-standard sites

• Homes developed will remain in CLT’s legal
• wnership
• But….
• It comes with increased costs, governance

and audit requirements

• And a lot of work
• Which strains cash flow and resource for

small volunteer organisations like us.

• And can slow you down when unexpected

money is needed

Should you do it?

It depends on what future organisation you want Plus who, and what resources you have.

• There is a lot of support and funding available right now
• You control your designs and tenant relationships better
• You will build your organisation and assets you can leverage.
• Adds credibility and creates opportunity

But…

• Don’t underestimate the work
• Or the responsibility
• And we’ve found developments slower and higher risk, mainly

as we have no financial reserves

www.caldervalleyclt.org.uk

richard@caldervalleyclt.org.uk