April 2024 Newsletter
Welcome to the first stand alone Update on Affordable Housing. Up until now, this has always been part of the Parish Council monthly report in Focus but as the project gains momentum it warrants its own space. We will soon be able to launch a website for the Thorverton Community Land Trust at www.thorvertonclt.co.uk and this will include much more information than we place in Focus, so please look out for this soon. For those that don’t have internet access we will, of course, continue to place a monthly update in Focus.
Last month we included the news that a Steering Group had been set up and subsequently sub-divided into four smaller groups with specific tasks:
- Community engagement, membership and communication
- Corporate governance, structure and legal
- Technical, site procurement and outline designs
- Finance, funding and viability modelling
- These four Groups have been meeting on a regular basis and reporting back to the Steering Group. This larger group has the benefit of including the advisor we have hired to see us through the early stages of this project, Geoff Pook, who was successful in building Affordable Homes in Beer over the last few years.
We are going to hold the Open Meeting that was mentioned last month; this will be on Thursday 11 April at 7.00pm in The Memorial Hall.
At that time we hope to be able to give you more information on:
- Where the housing might be sited
- How it will be managed
- How we pay for it
- How you can get involved
A Community Land Trust (CLT) is for the benefit of the whole community and is accountable to the members that join it, for a nominal £1.00 lifetime fee. We believe that this is a once in a generation opportunity for The provision of affordable housing for Thorverton’s local people in perpetuity.
Please do your best to come along on 11 April to hear more!