The Commons and Co-operative Tools: The Commonwealth Wheel

Pat Conatynew economics foundation and

Co-operatives UK5 December 2013

The Loss of the Commons

1. Commons land was widespread until the 14th century in Great Britain and Ireland – open fields, no stone walls or hedges and land stewarded based on customs and practice

2. Commons and waste land today is only 8% of land in the United Kingdom

3. 40,000 people (0.06% of the population) own nearly half of all land in the UK

Energy

MutualisingFinance

Democratizing & Localizing Ownership

3

Co-operative CommonwealthBuilding a Co-operative Economy Closer to Home

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BASIC NEEDS: Food Shelter

Reclaiming the Commons

Community Land Trusts

1. Origin in the Co-operative movement but forgotten – Thomas Spence, Robert Owen and Chartists

2. Revived in the USA (1970s) and UK (since 1980s)3. UK phase 1: five years of research into legal structures,

financing mechanisms and setting up work4. National Demonstration Project: (2006-2011) established

22 rural CLTs in England and similar number in Scotland earlier

5. 110 further UK CLTs in formation including urban ones in East London, Bristol, Liverpool and Cardiff and 250 CLTs USA

6. CLTs are also developing in Canada and Belgium

CLT Pioneer - ScotlandIsle 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’

Stages of the CLT Journey

Detailed Planning

Intro

Cost

of

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Building the model

Time

Completed Scheme (Occupancy)

Construction

CLT Development StepsThe 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)

National CLT Fund

1. A £2 million facilitation fund for CLT projects in England and Wales – supported by three national charitable foundations

2. Funds for those bodies that meet the legal definition of a CLT

3. Projects must be 50% housing at least4. Focus of funding includes four stages from seed and grant

funds to pre-development and construction finance5. Additional finance from Social Banks, Community Land and

Finance (CDFI) and Venturesome (Community Development Venture Capital Fund)

Feasibility day

one day of advice to help you identify the steps to take

Technical assistance grant a small grant to fund initial costs

Pre-developmentfinance

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 National CLT Fund for Six Steps

St Minver CLT - Cornwall1. Village of Rock on the river Camel estuary near Padstow with high price

holiday homes and average house price of £320,0002. CLT has developed 20 homes in the village using Self-build methods and

expertise from Alan Fox3. Land price including planning costs: £10,000 per home4. Costs: £77,000 for 2-bed and £85,000 for 3-bed homes – 26% of open

market value5. 12 CLT sites and over 100 CLTs developed by Cornwall CLT umbrella which is a CLT federation6. Public Social Partnerships between Cornwall County Council, CLT

federation and Cornwall Rural Housing

Low Carbon Economy Project: West Midlands 1. Localise West Midlands and

Marches Energy Agency: recruited and trained 24 mentors

2. 10 case studies prepared 3. 52 communities engaged4. Site surveys and community plans 5. Packages of funding for

community groups to commission service providers and installers

6. Range of energy technologies: – Energy saving retrofits for

community buildings– PV: simple and complex– Micro-hydro – Community-owned wind turbines– Biomass boilers – Anaerobic digesters

Commonwealth Wheel – Community Land Trust Tool for Project development: Experimented with Community Energy Schemes

Bayston Hill, Shropshire - 30kW pv Peer Learning and Knowledge Transfer

• Driven by 2 group members with technical and financial skills • Loan at ¾% over base rate – 1.25% from local Diocese to unlock the project• Earning 8% return from FIT scheme, so healthy return for Church• Experience and learning shared with over 20 community groups and networks from across the West Midlands, and much of it open sourced. Also disseminated within Church of England networks. Obvious national potential.

Tutbury Hydro (75kW), Staffordshire The need for Community Energy Partnerships

Learning the hard way - now on Plan C• Plan A – insufficient flow due to flood prevention measures • Plan B – scuppered by Environment Agency – try other side of the river• Plan C – new landlord, new site, new planning authority, new grid connection

1. Numerous show stoppers – all needing sorting first before there is a viable plan 2. Driven entirely by volunteers with help from: Carbon Leapfrog; ShareEnergy, Renewable Design Consultants, Derwent Hydro, H2OPE, Local Authority, Coops UK, Baker Brown Associates, Key Fund, Sustainability West Midlands and many local individuals, universities and community networks.

Lessons Learned

1. The Commonweath Wheel works across the full range of technologies/situations

2. Demonstrated that the process can be codifed for simpler PV through Bayston Hill, and can be shared and disseminated

3. Greatly simplifies the process for participants – both community groups, service providers and local government

4. Community Energy Partnerships can provides a consortia framework

5. The method is extendable to applications such as local food growing

6. Honest Broker – for all the talents and a transparent, empowerment tool, seeking mutual stakeholders to utilise.

Local Food Decline in Britain

• 1939: 96% of food was grown regionally in European countries

• 1900 to 2010: loss of 97% of fruit and vegetable varieties

• 1.4 million allotments in 1940s compared to less than 300,000 in 2010

Sources of Land Supply

• Local authorities: 12,710 hectares of vacant land and 96,206 hectares of farm land

• Property developers and corporates• Church of England: 10,000 acres plus• Network Rail, British Waterways and Sustrans • NHS, Universities and housing associations• Rural: Forestry Commission, MoD and farmers

Local Land Initiatives – Good Practice

(i) Meanwhile Use – NVA in Glasgow using modular growing equipment and Bradford Urban Garden

(ii) Rolling leases – NHS Lothian and Eastside Roots in Bristol (3 years with Network Rail)

(iii) Land purchase – precedents in areas of rural Scotland with a Community Land Fund - Comrie Development Trust (90 acres: ex-MOD)

(iv) Partnership arrangements – Soil Association and Community Supported Agriculture: Stroud CSA 200 members and 1-2 farmers

(v) Creative uses of land and model licenses – Incredible Edible Todmorden and Incredible Edible Somerset

(vi) Farming Land Trusts – Soil Association and the Biodynamic Land Trust

Landowner concerns

(i) Risk of planning and development delays

(ii) Skepticism about the accountability and capability of community gardening groups

(iii) Fears of project failure and risk of bad publicity

Community Land Banking Advisory Service

1. Acts as a brokerage for land access2. Offers security to both landowners and tenants on terms

and length of leases3. Reduces tenure costs and charges and cut delays in securing

land access4. Offers good practice precedents to landowners6. Service of the National Federation of City Farms and

Community Gardens7. Vehicle for Local Land Partnerships and CSAs

Local Land Partnership Trusts

1. Could be developed as a service by a City Farm, a Local Food Partnership or other local organisation (eg. NVA in Glasgo is an arts body as is FABRIC in Bradford)

2. Income sources: a) Service level agreement with local authority, NHS,

University, housing association, etc. for a policy objective b) fees from plot-holders on meanwhile or other leased sites c) fees from local landowners for setting up schemes d) fees to enable groups to set up self-managed schemes e) Income from enabling ‘community agriculture’

Meanwhile Use - Example

Local Land Partnerships or CSA 1.Secures land at £250 per acre yearly2.Lets to community growing group for £600 pa3.Group sub-lets plots for £900pa 4.LLP retains £350pa to cover costs5.Group retains £300 for maintenance6.Landowner provides fencing for security and

water

Social Enterprise Income

1. Seed capital: from large landowner as part of the deal for containers, top soil, security or other infrastructure

2. Fees for service: to secure policy outputs for public body or housing association (allotments and other: educational, healthy eating, training, environmental, therapeutic, etc)

3. In kind payments: site clearance, soil testing, compost, etc.4. Allotment fees: likely to rise in the years ahead as public

subsidies are cutback5. Capturing added value: community gardening can save

landlord costs and also raise a site value if well developed; land agent expertise could secure income for this

CLT Networks and Case Studies

For further information on Community Land Trusts visit these two websites and look at case studies:

England: See http://www.communitylandtrusts.org.uk/ncltn

USA: see http://www.cltnetwork.org/