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Fran Ryan: OCLT was established around 2000 after Martin Large returned from the USA, where he had studied the Burlington Community Land Trust in Vermont, a project funded in the 1980s by then-Mayor Bernie Sanders. In 2003, Martin and I called a meeting at Oxford Brookes University, and we decided to create the Oxfordshire Community Land Trust (OCLT). We were joined by others like Jock Coates, Vyv Salmon, Larry Sanders and Tony Crofts. In 2010, Tony discovered our first small plot of land in Botley, which is now the completed residential development of Crofts Court.
I got involved because of my fury—fury at how hard it is for ordinary people to live a good life. High rents force people to work excessively, leaving little time for family or pastimes. Land has become a commodity, and the housing crisis leaves many key workers anxious and unwell. Since Thatcher’s “right to buy” policy, councils have sold more housing than they’ve built, exacerbating the issue, with total sales exceeding 2 million homes. And even in 2020s council houses are still being sold. 41% of these sold homes are now in the private rental sector, costing the taxpayer way more than they would (through Local Housing Allowance) had they remained in public ownership.
Recently, I’ve been making daily visits to the John Radcliffe hospital and met a ward manager commuting from Cirencester. She’s in her 30s, has a two-year-old, and works incredibly hard, yet can’t afford to live locally. If we had a strong sector of affordable housing, it would stabilise lives. My aim with OCLT is to gradually build up a decent sized sector of community owned homes, that are off the market, so they can be used affordably, in perpetuity, for local people.
Josh Booth: I moved to Oxford five years ago with my partner. Poor health prevented me from working much, and despite being in our late 30s, we couldn’t afford to live alone. We rented with others and dealt with an aggressive managing agent. That’s when I truly felt the vulnerability of insecure housing—rising rents, a lack of control over the condition of the home we were renting, and the constant risk of being forced to move. My health challenges amplified this, but the housing crisis affects so many, especially younger people. I also had a long-standing interest in urban development and so joined OCLT in 2023 as its coordinator, seeking some involvement in the local community and a sense of agency over my surroundings. It’s been incredibly inspiring to learn from our volunteers and directors.
We all suffer when too much land is commodified—when it isn’t allocated based on social, environmental, or economic value, or on community needs, but is instead sold to the highest bidder.
Prioritising profit leads to an inefficient use of land—socially, environmentally, and economically. If people can’t live near work, school, or healthcare, they, the community, the environment, and the economy all suffer.
What’s great about the land trust model is that it de-commodifies land, so it can be used in a way that does benefit local people and their environment. But what also attracted me personally to work with the Community Land Trust are the possibilities for empowerment and innovation that this model opens up. Because we’re developing at a relatively small scale, and are not doing so for profit, we can work towards making our development process really participatory. This can have huge benefits for members of the local community who get involved. We can also try out approaches to development—for example, building sustainably, or raising money through community share offers—ahead of the mainstream.
Fran: In 2010, Tony found a piece of land. We secured planning permission in 2014 but faced delays because of a funding gap. We eventually secured planning again in 2019. Years of effort resulted in significant grants from the Vale of White Horse District Council and the Future Oxfordshire Partnership (formerly the Growth Board). We also raised £583,000 through a community share offer. By 2023, we completed construction, and eight families—primarily key workers—moved in, paying affordable rents (at local housing allowance levels). The Community Land Trust owns the freehold, and tenants don’t have the right to buy, ensuring permanent affordability.
In 2024, we received a house from a generous donor in St. Clements. This is now also rented affordably under OCLT ownership. We’re pursuing additional projects in Blackbird Leys (details on our website: https://www.oclt.org.uk/projects). Our aim is a self-sustaining model, achievable as we acquire the rental income from more properties. But we’re more than just about building affordable homes, we want to help slowly change the culture away from individualism and materialism in our currently polarised society. We want to be an example of the fantastic social benefits that can result from locally working together on something bigger than ourselves.
We’ve collaborated extensively with institutions like the Vale of White Horse District Council and Homes England; the latter providing funding after we became a Registered Provider in 2019. Their grants, alongside a flexible loan from Ecology, made our projects possible, and, thanks to our community share fundraising we’ve borrowed less from Ecology than initially planned making our first development more cost effective. In the early days we also had a lot of support from Jayne Woodley at Oxfordshire Community Foundation.
Oxford City Council has also been a key partner. Dave Scholes, in particular, has championed our cause. We’re working together on plans to develop housing on brownfield sites identified in 2020 by Transition by Design. These include garage sites in Blackbird Leys that no one else wants. While we only get the “crumbs”, these sites offer opportunities and we are determined to make the most of them for the benefit of the local community.
Our members—both £1 members and shareholder investors—are crucial. Many have made generous donations, including large gifts—one in the form of an entire 3-bedroom home—and bequests. Some even express interest in leaving their houses to OCLT in their wills. Regular smaller donations also help sustain us.
Our tenants currently come from the council’s housing list, and we aim to involve them more in the trust’s operations. While many face time constraints, we’re exploring ways to engage them. At Crofts Court we have developed a tenant management co-operative, supported by Soha Housing, that is training residents in valuable property management skills that help them look after their homes together—seeking to create a tighter and more resilient housing community. In the future, we hope to house not just those on the council’s list but also people who are not on the list but who are nonetheless struggling with housing costs and need affordable rents.
Support from other Community Land Trusts and Quaker friends has been invaluable, providing guidance and encouragement.
This is a model that really works- everyone should be doing this: We need more people to community land trusts as a real possibility for taking community ownership seriously. People are tired and short on time, so it's hard, but it is possible. We would like to create a “pattern book” for our members, to inspire them to see all the different ways you can bring housing into community ownership.
Funding for pre-development costs is vital. There is a lot of financial and time investment before you know if a site is going to work to build on. Because those funds are lost if the project doesn’t go ahead, it is very difficult to find finance for them. The Community Housing fund covered this and should be reinstated. For example, one site in Blackbird Leys will cost around £80,000 to carry out all of the due diligence and prepare a planning application. We need funding for those upfront costs.
Community Land Trusts and Local Authorities should collaborate: When a house is empty for a long time the local authorities have the statutory right to put pressure on the landlord to rent it out, or do a compulsory purchase order. Could local authorities and community land trusts work together more effectively on this?
We need to look at more creative ways of creating community housing.There are lots of innovative ways to do community housing that get around some of the bureaucracy and complexity of the financial arrangements. We Can Make in Bristol and the London Community Land trust are good examples where a new approach is being tried, demonstrating that if resources within communities are coordinated well and creatively, new possibilities open up.
Create better options for people wanting to downsize later in life, if there were then more people could leave their large homes and more housing would be available. We need the eyes and ears of our members to be open across the county—looking for opportunities for where the community land trust could run a project.
This case study is part of the 'Community wealth building: big conversations' project. These case studies are in the voice of the people who gave them. They seek to honestly present their successes, as well as the challenges of trying to build a more just, sustainable economy and community. We encourage conversation - so if you want to get in touch and talk more to any of the groups, please do.
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