Construction starts on 18 affordable homes, for local residents in Duloe.

As builders lay the foundation stones for 18 new homes in Duloe, Cornwall Community Land Trust says community led schemes are the best way of making sure affordable homes are genuinely affordable and safeguard local communities.

Cornwall Community Land Trust (CCLT), one of the most active CLT’s in the country, is leading the scheme to build the houses at Jubilee Close, in Duloe.

Ten of the homes will be for shared ownership and a further eight for affordable rent. The two and three bedroom homes which are due to be completed by January 2019 will be available only to people from Duloe or with a strong connection to the local area.

Our Development Manager Helen Downing has been overseeing the project she says: “There’s been much talk of housing in the budget but many Cornish residents remain totally priced out of the market. One of the best ways to combat the housing crisis in Cornwall is by communities taking house building into their own hands. Our Trust works with locals to secure the land, the funding and the building of homes. The homes are then rented below the market rent or bought at a genuinely affordable price, an importantly can only be sold at a below-market value to local first-time buyers.”
Parish Councillors were on site watching the build take shape. Tony Barrett is a Parish Councillor and is on the working party to deliver the housing project. He says “Duloe is a vibrant village with a strong community, plenty of facilities and a good school. We want to ensure it stays that way. A housing development of this size is small enough to be appropriate for our village but provides enough homes to keep our community viable for the future.”

In Cornwall ‘affordable housing’ is more often than not delivered as a small proportion of homes shoehorned into a larger housing scheme as part of the developer’s obligations to meet planning guidelines. But at Duloe we are working in partnership with the Aster Group, a developer with a strong sense of co-operate social responsibility to build high quality family houses.

Amanda Williams, group development director at Aster Group said “CLT partnerships are an important way of creating new affordable homes in rural areas and we have made a commitment to deliver them as part of our social purpose.”

The site has been leased from the Duchy of Cornwall.  Deputy Land Steward,Chris Matthews says “The Duchy is delivering affordable housing at locations across the South-West but this is the first time we have worked with Cornwall Community Land Trust in Cornwall. We share the trust’s aim of creating homes which are integrated into existing communities and which give people a sense of pride in where they live.”

It’s an exciting time for the Trust. We recently secured a share of a £60 million per annum Government fund from Cornwall Council to support community-led affordable homes and we have now has set a target of growing to build at least 50 homes in Cornwall every year by 2020.

Andrew Mitchell, Cornwall Council Cabinet Member for Homes, said: “Cornwall Council has provided almost £400,000 to help Registered Provider Aster Homes deliver this scheme of 100% affordable housing. I’m delighted that construction on this site is about to get underway to deliver the type of housing that Cornwall needs.”
Our Director Andrew George is confident we can achieve our aim. He says “Nationally there are now 225 CLTs, 800 homes have been built and there are another 4,500 in the pipeline. Cornwall has been and will continue to become of the most successful places in the UK for Community-led homes. The regional and national support infrastructure is starting to grow across the country and I am ambitious for what this sector can be in Cornwall.

I foresee this type of community led housing emerging from being a ‘niche’ market into a mainstream option to quality affordable build homes and safeguard our local communities.”