Cornwall Community Land Trust and supporters celebrated the work of its founding Director Alan Fox and offered a richly rewarded and warm appreciation for his efforts and achievements for those in housing need at his long-overdue retirement party recently.

Alan, formerly Senior Housing Officer at Penwith District Council (PDC) and then Penwith Housing Association (PHA), was formative in developing the Community Land Trust model to deliver affordable homes available in perpetuity restricted to local need – a model now adopted and used across the UK.  Registered in 2006, Cornwall CLT was the first umbrella CLT in the country.  Since then, Alan has worked tirelessly to help Cornwall CLT and its community partners provide nearly 300 homes across 27 projects both through Cornwall CLT itself and through locally-managed Community Land Trusts such as St Minver and Lands End Peninsula Trust.  Members of both of these were present to say farewell to Alan.  Alan is renowned in the community-led homes movement as an outstanding “guru” of pragmatic advice and impeccable professional standards.

Tom Chance, Chief Executive of the CLT Network sent a message thanking Alan on behalf of the Community Land Trust Network for all of his efforts to establish the CLT model in Cornwall, and for his generosity in supporting CLTs further abroad.  “You’ve made an unparalleled contribution to our movement and will be greatly missed” he added.

Alan joined friends and family at his old haunt the Penzance Hockey Club for an enjoyable evening of reminiscences and nostalgia.  These included the occasion Alan met the now King Charles at a CLT event on Duchy of Cornwall land at Duloe (prior to the completion of a successful community-led project of 18 in-perpetuity affordable homes for locals of that parish) as well as many eventful happenings with his colleagues at PDC and PHA and with members of the Club.

In his moving tribute to Alan “Foxy” Fox, Andrew George, CEO of Cornwall CLT, said:
“Alan is rightly acknowledged as something of a “guru” in our world of enthusiastic charities which strive to deliver much-needed homes for those in need. His achievements speak for themselves. It is a testament to Alan that Cornwall CLT is the most successful CLT in the UK, and has delivered more projects and more homes in its 15-year life than any other.”

He went on to say “Alan has ensured that he leaves a legacy of a strong organisation which reflects his determination to deliver high professional standards and projects which work with local communities and which meet the needs of local people.”

The farewell coincided with World CLT Day which was celebrated on 28-29th October as an opportunity to give visibility to the growing community of CLTs and share exciting work with peers around the globe.