Bradford Abbas 
Parish Community Land Trust

Community Land Trusts

What are Community Land Trusts?

Community Land Trusts (CLTs) are a model of community-led development, where local organisations develop and manage homes and other assets important to their communities, such as community enterprises, food growing or workspaces. The CLT’s main goal is to ensure that these spaces are affordable, based on the income level of the locals living in the area, and are fulfilling a need identified by the community. CLTs are run as not-for-private-profit, which means that they can make a surplus as a community business, but that such surplus must be used to benefit the community. The National CLT Network brings together CLTs from around the UK.

The main benefits that a CLT can bring are:

Land ownership: A CLT can secure and hold land in perpetuity for the use of the community.

Affordable Homes and Projects for Local People: It can enter into partnerships with other bodies such as Housing Associations to provide homes for those with a defined need and a defined local connection through living or working in the parish, or having family there. This is enshrined in a legally binding agreement between the relevant District Council, the Housing Association and the CLT.  

Access to grant funding: The creation of a CLT opens doors to grants from funders who support projects for community benefit.   

Financial viability: In respect of housing, a CLT will obtain income from ground rents sufficient to cover the CLT’s running costs and provide a small income for other projects. The CLT is, therefore, financially sustainable.  

Democratic. A CLT is a democratic organisation with membership open to anyone who owns a minimum of one share, with each share valued at £1. All decisions are made by the members and with each member having one vote regardless of how many shares they hold.  This ensures that all developments have wide community acceptance and are driven by community priorities.