Rural Community Land Trust

The project proposal is a two-year pilot with the aim of developing a Community Land Trust for Pembrokeshire. This activity is noted in the LEADER intervention logic table and the LDS document.

Project Outcomes:

Key activities:

1. The need for rural housing
2. Alternative rental affordable housing
3. Demand for self-build sites
4. Cohousing solution
5. Supporting communities identify and address an ageing population profile and discrepancy in house pricing.
6. Investigate and pilot skills development for self-build projects
7. Develop a land and buildings audit with support from the County Council.
8. Supporting the Council planning department – e.g. exception sites
9. Increase permanent occupancy rates of coastal villages
10. Drawing-in investment capital – group applications.

“Working with communities the Pembrokeshire Community Land Trust pilot project aims to deliver genuine, permanently affordable homes and land owned and run by local people. The Officer will lead teams for housing and land development and supporting partnership development across the sector.”

Lessons Learned:

We would have chased match funding at an earlier stage to allow additional cash match funding to provide additional services for this project. In an ideal world there would have been a county fund of 30% match funding to allow a 100% grant for the project. Possibly the Second Home Tax Grant could have matched this project from day one. We need to ask the council officer to consider this for future projects.