From NIMBYs to Co‑Creators: How Communities Are Leading Development Through CLTs?
Inside Property DevelopmentShow Notes
This week, Tom Chance the Chief Executive of the National Community Land Trust Network joins Paul to discuss something most SME developers either haven’t heard of – or are massively underestimating - Community Land Trusts.
If you’re battling viability, stuck on marginal sites, or sick of being painted as “the bad guy” in planning committees, this episode is for you.
You’ll hear how CLTs can unlock land that doesn’t work at full residential land values, bring locals in as genuine partners, smooth planning, and even help with tricky Section 106 and funding challenges.
Use Paul´s Scorecard to test your current development assessment process and work out exactly how to improve it. Click here - http://bit.ly/MLASCORE or https://millbanklandacademy.scoreapp.com
KEY TAKEAWAYS
A Community Land Trust (CLT) is a nonprofit organization that owns land and leases it long-term to individuals or groups who own the homes, gardens, etc. on the land and ensure they remain affordable when re-sold.
There are already CLTs delivering schemes - everything from small village projects to a 600‑home former council estate in central London.
CLTs turn locals from objectors into co‑developers – they own the land and help decide what gets built.
Rural exception policies let CLTs unlock certain types of fields to be used for affordable homes. Landowners earn a reasonable amount and land that would not otherwise be financially viable for housing can be built on.
CLTs often do better at planning.
The real bottleneck is pre‑development cost and risk – getting to “site secured + consented” can cost £10–15k per home.
When communities see the viability spreadsheet, they quickly drop the fantasy of “gold‑plated everything” – CLTs force the community to make the same hard trade‑offs on spec, standards and rent that private developers have to.
BEST MOMENTS
"At the heart of it is local people owning and running a democratic local sort of social enterprise that is part of the process and gives them some stake in how development takes place."
"They vary from literally one or two homes in the edge of a village, to a CLT that owns a 600 home former council estate in central London.”
"Landowners say, well, you've got a better chance of getting permission for this because it's being done by a CLP for affordable housing."
“I describe it as policy acupuncture.”
EPISODE RESOURCES
https://www.communitylandtrusts.org.uk
ABOUT THE HOST
Paul Higgs is a Chartered Planning and Development Surveyor with 40+ years' experience in land, planning and development and a 100% success track record in winning planning consents.
Paul undertook his first refurb project when he was just 17 and then worked his way up from labouring on building sites to becoming Head of Land for renowned plc housebuilder, Barratt Developments. He managed to escape the corporate world in 2002 to set up what is now a multimillion-pound award-winning property development company, Millbank Group.
In 2013 Paul founded the Millbank Land Academy, the UK’s first training company dedicated to property development; to teach established and aspiring developers the insider secrets the big housebuilders don’t want you to know!
Paul is also a founding investor and former board director of the industry-leading PropTech Co, LandTech, and has lectured on Advanced Development Valuations on the MSc Property Development at London South Bank University.
CONTACT METHOD
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-higgs
Millbank Land Academy: https://www.millbanklandacademy.co.uk
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/paulhiggsofficial
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@InsidePropertyDevelopment
This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/
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