Welcome to the November 2019 GCLT newsletter
The GCLT Board recently celebrated its first year since being registered with the Financial Conduct Authority as a Community Benefit Society in October 2018.
CONGRATULATIONS
It has been a busy year and I would like to thank the Board Directors and our advisers at Wessex CLT Project and Devon Communities Together for their hard work and support during the past year.
So what have we achieved – well we have completed all the legal formalities necessary with the formulation of a CLT, undertaken negotiations with the Combe Estate regarding the identification of a preferred site and agreed Heads of Terms for the sale of the site to the GCLT, gained endorsement of the preferred site from the village community, held a housing need “gdrop in”h event to re-establish the level of affordable housing need in the village and successfully submitted a start-up revenue grant application to East Devon District Council. Given the complexity of many of the issues that is a pretty good return for a 12 month period.
The “drop in” event held on 10th October focused on revisiting the key area of understanding the level of housing need within the village and its surrounding area. A number of households came along and were able to have a discussion with Janice Alexander from Devon Communities Together. The results confirmed that the affordable housing need of 6 units previously identified 3 years ago, continues to be the case. This result provides the necessary confidence boost for the Board to progress with the appointment of solicitors, accountants, the Housing Association (HA) partner, architects and consultants to undertake all the necessary site investigations. I can visualize an awful lot of paperwork heading in my direction over the next few months!!
An important document that we are working on at the present is the Allocations Plan. This has to be agreed with EDDC and the HA and will ultimately become an integral part of the Section 106 Agreement which will accompany the planning permission.
Any person who applies for an affordable dwelling must show that they are in Housing Need and that they have a Local Connection. The Allocations Plan sets out the criteria which will be taken into account when allocating the dwellings when they are ready for occupation. All applicants must be registered with Devon Home Choice. The initial priority is to establish an applicant’fs level of need. Once this is established the local connection criteria can then be applied. I have raised a number of questions about how appropriate the current EDDC criteria would be when applied in the Gittisham context and I am now awaiting some clarifications.
It should be remembered, of course, that there are 6 potential applicants as a result of the “gdrop in”h event who meet the current criteria.
Well we need a bit more grant to fund all the above and so it’fs back to another application form!!
Oh yes, just in case you have not noticed Christmas is on the way so on behalf of the GCLT Board I wish you all a Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.
David Valentine
Chairman
Email:
Company Secretary:
Helen Hayman, Gittisham Farm, GITTISHAM. EX14 3AX