London mayor is committed to CLTs
Jenny Jones is slightly disingenuous about the mayor’s approach on Community Land Trusts (Inside Housing, 30 July).
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The mayor is completely committed to enabling London’s first CLT. This would be the first urban land trust anywhere in the country and, even as a pilot, potentially one of the largest land trusts in Britain.
We have been working with community groups, including London Citizens, for several months. The mayor has encouraged communities to come forward with proposals, to enable the viability of schemes to be assessed and funding to be considered. There are serious discussions on specific sites taking place with community groups, boroughs and the Homes and Communities Agency. With budgets tightening across housing, it is right that the mayor is requiring the pilot to deliver value for money.
For the first time, the Greater London Authority has a housing strategy which supports innovation to strengthen the relationship between homes and communities. Nevertheless, given the historic shortage of affordable housing in London, we need to recognise that, in the short-term at least, CLTs will not be a panacea to the capital’s housing supply challenges.
Richard Blakeway, mayor of London’s advisor for housing