ABOUT KCLT
Kendal Community Land Trust - Vision, Principles & Aims
ABOUT US

Who We Are
We are a group of Kendal residents with a shared vision to address the lack of affordable housing in and around Kendal. Inspired by the growing national Community-Led Housing movement and encouraged by the potential to access financial support from South Lakeland District Council via their Community Housing Fund we feel now is the time to tackle this shortage.
Our Vision
Kendal Community Land Trust’s vision is to create affordable homes that represent the needs and aspirations of the local community in and around Kendal. Our homes will encourage community cohesion, will be innovative in design and construction and will offer low energy living to combat fuel poverty and reduce carbon emissions. As homes will be owned by the CLT, we will ensure they stay affordable for both existing and future generations.


Why a CLT?
As a Community Land Trust we are a not-for-profit, member-owned organisation dedicated to providing affordable housing and other benefits to the local community. Our advantage is that, unlike Housing Associations, we are not subject to ‘right to buy’, and so can preserve affordable homes, prioritised for local people, long term. We can also manage local space for community access, recreation and biodiversity.
OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES
- To create socially, environmentally and economically sustainable homes in and around Kendal.
- To consult with and represent the wider community and those in need of affordable housing.
- To welcome membership from the wider community who support the aims of the group.
- To work in partnership with Local Authorities, advisory and voluntary bodies, Housing Associations, parish councils, other community groups, and individuals who support the objectives.
- To create innovatively designed homes that include community space and encourage community living, wherever possible.
- To include sustainability, wherever possible, in the design and building of affordable housing, including transport options, to reduce carbon emissions and help make running costs affordable.
- To secure a formula to permanently protect the Trust’s housing, so that it cannot be lost to the open housing market and remains available for local people.
- To offer a mix of tenures to meet local housing needs.
- To stimulate training opportunities for young or vulnerable people and self-help opportunities wherever possible.
- To develop other projects in response to the needs expressed by the community and to respond to other development opportunities as they arise.
OUR CHARITABLE OBJECTIVES
A2 The CLT is formed for the benefit of the community to operate as a Community Land Trust in Kendal and the surrounding area.
A3 The Objects of the CLT are:
A3.1 To carry on for the benefit of people in need (whether by virtue of poverty, financial hardship, age, physical or mental disability or ill health) in the area of benefit:
A3.1.1 the business of providing, developing and managing environmentally sustainable housing (including social housing) and facilitating the development and management of such housing; and
A3.1.2 the provision of, and facilitating the provision of, information, advice, assistance, training, support facilities, amenities and services incidental to the provision and promotion of housing.
A3.2 the promotion of regeneration in areas of social and economic deprivation in the area of benefit in such ways as may be thought fit by the Trustees:
A3.3 the promotion of the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural
environment of the area of benefit in such ways as may be thought fit by the Trustees; and
A3.4 any other charitable object that can be carried out from time to time by a community land trust and which the Trustees consider would further the social, economic and environmental interests of the community in the area of benefit
THE BUSINESS WE WILL DO
We will carry out any of the following business activities, for community benefit:
- Owning and renting out affordable homes.
- Owning and selling on shared ownership or discount market value affordable homes.
- Owning or managing public open spaces for community control, access and use, including to maintain biodiversity.
- Possibly, owning, leasing or managing other local communal facilities, under community control.
- Possibly, training and employing (or contracting with) local people to carry out our business.
THE COMMUNITIES THAT WE INTEND TO BENEFIT
We will operate in and around the town of Kendal in Cumbria. If we find a site in a Parish surrounding Kendal, then we will seek to form a separate delivery group for the site, more than half of which must live/work in that parish. We can benefit these communities in these ways:
- Making homes available at social/affordable rents will allow the poorest to live safer lives in good quality homes; the CLT structure prevents these being subject to ‘right to buy’, so they can be available for the community in perpetuity.
- Providing a range of affordable homes will allow lower paid and key public workers to stay in the community, closer to the services that need them.
- These affordable homes also contribute to the diversity, viability and flourishing of the wider community in Kendal and the surrounding area.
- The community’s ability to be members of the CLT gives them the ability to take part in decisions, giving more control over things – homes, land, facilities – that are critical to their enjoyment of life.
- With training and employing (or contracting with) local people to carry out our business the CLT aims to create employment for local people and thus growing the local economy. We are ready to come and talk to any other community in and around Kendal to understand their needs and see how we might help and work with them, too.
FIND OUT MORE
For more information, you can download our full Vision and Aims in the ‘All Documentation’ section of our Who We Are page.