Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
StART - helping the community take charge of the St Ann's Development!
Two-thirds of St Ann's Hospital site is due to be sold for private housing development. With only 14% of homes classed as 'affordable', current proposals take no account of the needs of local people. The community land trust 'StART' (St Ann's Redevelopment Trust) believes that it can do better. We have launched a crowdfunder, and we want you to get involved! Momentum is building; we were recently profiled in The Guardian.
StART's vision is simple: we want to ensure that the St Ann's site is used to benefit the whole community. Our plans are based on community consultation, seeking a far higher level of truly affordable, high quality housing and aiming to promote its fantastic green space. We also seek a development that is sensitive to local residents' health needs.
We have instructed architects to prepare initial plans. We now need to raise £25k to pay for the finished plans to be drawn up. These plans will allow StART to cost the project and put together a bid for the site. To make this happen, StART is fundraising now! Please click here to donate!
As it's a crowdfunder, donations will only be drawn from accounts once the full target has been reached. If you'd prefer, you can also support StART by becoming a member, or simply spreading the word! You can email StART at info@startharingey.co.uk.
Let's do it!
Tags for Forum Posts: housing, land trust, st ann's redevelopment, st anns
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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This is a great initiative. My understanding of it is that community trust developments are quite different to any other type. Are there a few quick-to-grasp bullet points summarising what it would mean locally, Geoff?
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Permalink Reply by Geoff Amabilino on
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I am no expert here and it is not very intuitive, but here's a few points to mull over:
Given the state of UK planning law, communities are relatively powerless over the composition and design of large developments that will have a major impact on their localities. Community land trusts are drawn from the community, and pull that power back to local people. This is the driver behind StART.
The lack of affordable housing in many developments is down to the profit margin that is factored in to the 'viability' calculations. I understand that in the UK this can typically be 20-25%. As a community land trust, StART would only need to cover the costs of financing the development plus management costs, so that 20 - 25% can be used to increase the proportion of affordable/social housing.
If StART retains the management of the development it could as you suggest below determine the cost of the housing on resale, and it could also ensure that future buyers meet the original affordability criteria. This would keep the housing for local people and avoid a drift into buy-to-let land.
The plans that we are asking the architects to draw up should be reach our funding target are the direct result of community consultation. They are your plans, and we can't move forward until they are completed.
Hope this helps!
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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I know this isn't the same thing but here's the FT on the weird world of property crowdfunding.
The flat’s market value in January 2015 was £525,000; Property Partner grabbed it at a discount for £435,000; and in July another independent valuation put the price at £611,000. But in the past three months investors on the website have given the property an implied valuation as low at £520,000 and as high as £4m.
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No, not the same thing at all. My understanding of this initiative is to relate the cost of housing to real cost and divorce it from the spiralling property market. I recall something about property resale value being determined by the trust rather than the market.
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Permalink Reply by Vanessa Rickett on
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The crowdfunding is for architects to draw up plans that represent the community's vision for the site. StART conducted a number of local consultations and put together the instruction to the architects based on what we learned at these events. One of the things people felt very strongly about was genuinely affordable housing that remains affordable in perpetuity - that the site is retained for the benefit of the community. But not only this, the community felt strongly about health and the environment and community facilities. It is important that the development is sympathetic to the needs of the patients at the hospital and that there is green space accessible to all. There are many aspects to this project that I am unable to set out in this short post but we have achieved so much more than we could possibly have hoped for when we embarked on this massive undertaking 15 months ago. We welcome anyone who wants to become involved. Please consider contributing to the crowd fund, share widely and help us make this community development a reality.
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Permalink Reply by Dick Harris on
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This is an excellent initiative by local people for local people. If the Start community land trust succeed in acquiring this site we can confidently expect that the price of housing there (whether sold or rented) will be related not to the market price but to the cost of acquisition, construction and management only.
I think it is well worth supporting this scheme in principle even if you are already well housed. If you are not satisfied with your present housing but can't afford to buy or rent in the area at today's market prices, Start is designed for you and needs your support in any way you can offer.
I certainly support it even though I have owned a house here for 37 years.
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Permalink Reply by TTTH on
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This seems very innovative. Is the plan for the group to buy the land or is the aim of the new plans to show the existing developer that more housing can be accommodated on the site and that additional housing can be more affordable? There may already be a value on the land if they have planning approval and this could be quite pricey for a community group to attain?
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I'm not involved, but can give you a rough and ready answer and say yes, the aim is to buy the land and to act as the developer but to cut out the profit motive and aim for community benefit.
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Might be worth mentioning the Neighbourhood Development Order (Localism Act) where local authorities encourage self build from community groups. This has worked down in Lewisham in recent years where a community group suggested a parcel of land which was owned by the council for self build development. This gets difficult when the land gets into the hands of a private developer.
Another case is the Royal Mail sorting office site in Clerkenwell. A local group objected to the Royal Mail's proposal and got another architect to draw up a more sympathetic scheme in a conservation area which also had more affordable housing I think. At this stage it's unsure whether the developer will use the revised plans, but in most cases the developer will steam ahead with the plans that they have approval for.
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Yes, that's why the group want to act as the developer, probably in partnership with an HA.
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