Bristol’s City Council’s Gypsy Sites
Proposals & Community Land Trusts
Ian Holding
• continuous and ongoing
dialogue with the Gypsy &
Traveller community in respect
of a range of public services.
• building trust and sound
relationship with the community
over many years.
• Time and time again we are
informed that the community
also want to be able to find land
that they can afford and be
supported to gain planning
permission and to have control
themselves over their own
homes.
Equality of Opportunity
• no avenue for Gypsies and Travellers
to move out of the rented sector for
culturally appropriate
accommodation - i.e. Gypsy caravan
site pitches
• unless 100% of the capital for
outright land purchase and
construction costs.
• no developers offering newly built
pitches in the private sector
• Diversity of Tenure
» Council / Social Landlord Rented
» Private Landlord Rented
» Owner Occupation
• Diversity of Type of Site
Residential sites
Working sites
2009 PROPOSAL
• Bristol City Council bid to help
Gypsies and Travellers in the Bristol
area to get onto the accommodation
ladder
• in much the same way as initiatives
such as the Right to Buy/Acquire and
Shared Ownership schemes
currently available to those in
conventional housing.
Owner Occupied
Site Options
A)
• Bare land Pitches
• land only purchased
• All construction
provided by self
B)
• land purchase
Plus
• either part
infrastructure –
Electric/ drains etc
and or
• finance available for
materials,
• owner occupiers to
provide labour
C)
• pitches pre built in a
park home style
• Rent to Buy staircase
to ownership or part
ownership Options
50% rent
50% buy
Not for Profit Land
Organisation
• All Land would have a
restrictive covenantGypsy Site use only
and be leasehold for
max 25-30 years / until
paid off
• A shared profit scheme
for any plots sold
similar to Right to Buy
council housing resale.
Resident profit
increases in time and
with repayment of
finance.
• Lack of private Gypsy caravan
site pitches that Gypsies and
Travellers could buy
• lack of market mechanism to
encourage this.
• result of this is that Gypsies
and Travellers do not have the
same equality of opportunity as
other citizens,
• to purchase their own home
through shared equity schemes
or have a right to buy their local
authority pitch.
Community Land Trusts
• not-for-profit organisations that
owns land and property on trust
for the benefit of the
community.
Community Land Trusts
• have potential to deliver a model for
self-management of existing local
authority sites
• experience and confidence needs to
be gained,
• thus offering local authority sites a
means of tenant self-management,
reducing costs and increasing
community participation.
• of a local recyclable capital
fund administered by a
community trust
• finance the development costs
of sites / pitches
+
Land & Property Value
Existing Sites
Future Rent income
• CLT Loans to Travellers could
start at 1.5% above base rate –
• Interest rates stepped across
the life of the loan to encourage
repayment within a reasonable
period,
• no more than 15 years.
• Loan repayments will regenerate the
fund for the future provision of
additional pitches.
• Defaulters would ultimately lose
their lease and the land would be relet, thereby protecting both the
capital fund and the land.
• Leases for will be for a period of 2530 years.
• Lease of land +Loan for development
costs
• 25-30 year leasehold for land
• Loan of up to £15,000 for design,
connection to utilities and
hardstanding.
• Residents self-build
Thank you for Listening
• Any Questions
• Ian.holding@bristol.gov.uk
• 0117 922 3367