Vision for 400,000-home city set out with Community Land Trust-managed affordable housing
A company has outlined a vision for a 400,000-home city with “genuinely affordable” housing, with the majority managed by Community Land Trusts (CLT) and potentially 30% by social landlords.
Vision for 400,000-home city set out with Community Land Trust-managed affordable housing #UKhousingThe Albion City Development Corporation (ACDC) has drawn up an initial feasibility study for a ‘forest city’ on 45,000 acres east of Cambridge, which it says could house a million people.
The report, created with a coalition of 40 experts, sets out plans for a city with “gently dense” housing, 8,000 acres of commercial space including a central business district, a reservoir and a major rewilding scheme.
Seven in 10 of the properties would be earmarked for sale through a CLT.
The report states this would mean homes could only be sold back to the city at the value of the building, so that any gain in land value is passed on to future residents.
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The project aims for homes to be available for residents at 60% below market rates, including a target of £350,000 per four-bedroom home.
The remaining 30% of homes would be rented co-operatively, potentially through registered social landlords, the report adds.
Shiv Malik and Joe Reeves, the founders of the development corporation, said the city aims to help repair the “social contract”, meaning the ability of generations to “work hard, buy a home and raise a family”.
This is why they want the city’s housing to be “as non-extractive as possible”, they wrote in the introduction to the report.
The pair said they are not backing a post-war government-owned housing model, as the institution “often fails to imbue residents with a true sense of ownership, and has been unable to protect hard-won community assets from privatisation”.
The duo acknowledged the current government has brought in policies aimed at increasing housebuilding, but argued that it makes more sense to focus on one place – and claimed the industry is also on board.
“From our own conversations with major housing developers, a project of this scale and duration – offering consistent baseline demand over decades – would be genuinely transformative,” they added.
“Even if it comes in the form of less profitable contractor relationships, stability and scale help de-risk their wider business.”
The full 296-page document was sent to government officials for consideration this month.
Co-authors of the study include Bethany Albrecht, a development delivery manager at Sovereign Network Group, and Tom Chance, the chief executive of the Community Land Trust Network.
The project has won backing from Tim Smit, founder of the Eden Project and Patricia Hewitt, former secretary of state for trade and industry, who chairs the company’s advisory board.
Jackie Sadek, the chair of the UK innovation corridor and board member of the London Legacy Development Corporation, is also on ACDC’s advisory board.
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