Our Story

Charles Ainger and a small group of local people were inspired to set up the Lune Valley Community Land Trust (LVCLT) as a community benefit society in early 2018, after seeing that three local commercial developments were only providing affordable homes that were too few, too small and too expensive to heat, leading to fuel poverty.

The aim was to create affordable, sustainable homes, prioritised for local people. They are currently developing 20 affordable Passivhaus homes, in partnership with South Lakes Housing and supported by Lancaster City Council on a site in Halton and will comprise of a mix of shared ownership and affordable rent properties, built to a quality standard offering modern, energy efficient tech and access to EV charging points.

Community involvement has been at the heart of our project; having taken a key role in the development and building of the project, they also continued this engagement online through a web-based public consultation. This grassroots approach has led the scheme being well supported by the local community and it showed with no objections against our planning permission.

The Challenge

Our confidence in the project drew partly on our trustees’ experience in developing Lancaster Cohousing, another Passivhaus scheme in the area. Having been inspired by Kenswick Community Housing Trust, we connected with a local community-led housing advisor and received early funding from the CLT Network and Coop UK to help with building. A series of local public meetings and a local needs survey, we were in a strong position to represent the needs and aspirations of the local community.

We knew that a preferable site close to us was needed to help visualise its potential. After striking a partnership with South Lakes Housing, we then had great resources and man power to manage design, construction and long term occupation, but also to provide them with ‘ownership’ through a 150 year lease, to access their lower cost loan funding of construction cost with the HA’s size and larger asset base could provide.

After being granted funding from the council’s Community Housing Fund, we then was able to tap into the HA’s established experience and contacts for organising planning, design, and construction, which hugely sped up the process. This led to a bond of trust between us and the HA and allowed the project to drive towards the high-standards we set out in the first place.

Our site choice, along with strong council support and a strong relationship with the HA meant that our project was in prime position to be granted planning permission, and we’ve not looked back since. In 2022 we manged to successfully complete construction of 20 high-quality, low carbon homes at affordable rent for the local community.

Our Solution

The design of the homes includes a pedestrian central street and car parking on either end of the development so that the community have a safe, car free place to mix in the centre where kids can play safely, and garden areas can be enjoyed together.

All homes will exceed recommended national space standards by 5% and each resident can ultimately have access to EV charging points. Being built to Passivhaus standard means that each homes uses perhaps only 20% as much energy compared to a standard new build home, significantly reducing the risk of fuel poverty. Once built, the homes will be close to zero carbon. They will also help provide better health, offering clean air, and no moisture condensation, that supports healthy lungs and reduces the risk of respiratory disease.

The brownfield site was acquired from a local developer with financial support from Lancaster City Council, and the pre-development costs was covered by the funding from the Community Housing Fund.

Want to find out more?

To find out more about the LVCLT, follow the link below:

https://lunevalleyclt.org