Frome Area Community Land Trust is absolutely all about ‘community’. We want to build affordable rental homes for local people in Frome. With a local
The term “affordable housing” to most people is about as trustworthy as “the cake never left the Tupperware box”. Affordable houses have been springing up across England
Here at Frome Area Community Land Trust we have been in a reflective mood, looking back at the quieter winter months where we were all still struggling to come out of the pandemic whilst we concentrated on our ongoing search for suitable land. We discussed strategy and finance as well as how best to take FACLT forward with the challenges of the local housing market and the ever increasing rental property crisis.
It is fair to say that the Right to Buy scheme for council tenants introduced under the Thatcher government where so many tenants snapped up their homes at a vastly reduced cost has had serious implications on housing stock. The social housing stock was diminished and never fully replaced despite the indication that it would be. No one can blame those who aspired to owning their own home when they bought their house, sadly many eventually fell into the hands of private landlords or were just sold on for profit. Almost all in the housing industry acknowledge the detrimental effect of removing so many homes from the country’s stock of low cost rental housing.
Last summer FACLT were partners in a project to build on small areas of green space in Frome. Following consultation with local residents we decided that the project wasn’t viable. We listened and learned but are still left with the ongoing problem of securing land for the provision of new homes to be made available at social rent for local people. In Frome this has become increasingly challenging. The popularity of our town makes it attractive to private developers who buy up the land at high prices and build homes that are neither affordable nor suitable for those who are in need.
The local elections are over and Frome has repeated what seems to be a tradition now of electing a fully independent town council with the Independents
Priorities have changed and we have come a very long way indeed from the planning white paper set out by Robert Jenrick in August 2020, writes Joey Gardiner
The local elections are done and Frome continues to have a fully independent Town Council with all 17 seats being taken by the Independents for Frome group. There will be little or no time for the newly elected councillors to relax and celebrate their win as the issues facing the town are significant as they are for the country as a whole. Locally at a town level there are obvious limits to what a small town or parish council can do but past experience shows us that our own town council often punch above their weight and get some extraordinary things done. FACLT spoke with some of the new councillors, two of whom were re-elected and two elected for the first time. The housing crisis was high on their agendas.
Frome, like most towns in the UK, has a serious affordable housing crisis. Is it possible to meet this challenge while building to low or zero carbon standards? Reports from COP26 and the IPCC, over 2021-22, suggest we cannot afford not to. According to the IPCC, Greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025 and should almost be halved by the end of the decade to give the world a chance of limiting future heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Any increase above 1.5C is likely to have catastrophic consequences for the stability of our climate.
If the Frome Area Community Land Trust (FACLT) is to succeed in providing new, genuinely affordable homes for local people in housing need, it is
Email: info@fromeareaclt.org
Frome Town Hall
Christchurch Street West
Frome BA11 3EB
© Frome Area Community Land Trust. All rights reserved.
