Land for People Working Conference, Stroud

[The Land Is Ours]

'Land for People' Working Conference
Tuesday 23rd October 2001
The SPACE,  Stroud, Gloucestershire

featuring:
- Developing Community Land Trusts for Social enterprise, housing and 
community-supported farming: Pat Conaty and Steve Bendle

- Widening Mutuality for financial inclusion:
  Richard Newcombe

- Developing Conservation Land Trusts:
  Caroline Aistrop

- Stroud Cohousing Project:
David Michael

Venue
The SPACE, Lansdown, Stroud,  GL5 1BN
5 minutes from  Merrywalks NCP, main line train/ bus stations,
Cost
£75.00 for businesses,  consultants, public sector and housing associations;
£ 35 for individuals, charities, community enterprises and non-profits; £25
Concessions and members of SCW.
Information table: £25
Fee payable in advance, includes tea/coffee/light lunch/conference pack. Fee
refunded if Conference cancelled. If you cannot attend, just send a
replacement and tell us their name.
Early booking is recommended.

Booking
Please send booking letter, mentioning your job and preferred  afternoon
workshop, with a cheque payable to Stroud District Council   to Tourist
Information Centre, George St, Stroud, Glos GL5 1AE (Bookings: 01453 760900)
Information: Martin Large, Land for People
Tel (01453) 757040  Mhclarge @aol.com

Land for People will present the latest research into Community Land Trusts,
working solutions and practical examples of financial inclusion. This will
enable you to consider how CLT's can benefit your work, assist community
renewal, housing solutions,  food growing and conservation. We will also
consider alternatives to Credit Unions for promoting financial inclusion and
how  financial institutions can set up community investment accounts for
local investors.

Why Community Land Trusts?
Current land use is determined by those who pay the most, regardless of how
well such property is stewarded. The result can be empty properties, waste
and lack of access to land by people with needs, projects and skills. CLTs
are tried and tested-an alternative to both private and public ownership.

What is a Community Land Trust?
A Community Land Trust  enables local solutions for housing, social
enterprise, conservation and farming. CLTs are non-profit, community driven
organizations, with some of the features of Local Housing Companies,
Community Based Housing Associations and Community Development Trusts.

What are the benefits?
-Vehicle for community ownership of farms, conservation areas, managed
workspace, social enterprise
-Supports co-op housing and affordable home ownership
- Builds socially inclusive communities through local mutuality
-Communities can take preventative action against the distorting effects of
the property market by securing a "commons."

How to develop CLTs?
Pat Conaty, a leading pioneer of community  banking, has researched CLTs for
the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Countryside Agency. He will present
the why, what and how of CLTs. His afternoon workshop will enable
participants work on developing their  CLTs, such as Stroud Common Wealth or
Hill Paul Regeneration Ltd.
Potential investors, local authorities, housing associations and bankers will
see how CLTs can work for them.

Enabling  Financial Inclusion by Extending Mutuality
Richard Newcombe will present a successful case model of a Guarantee Fund:
Saving and Loan Scheme, involving partnerships between Housing Associations
and Building Societies as an alternative to credit unions.
His afternoon workshop will enable housing professionals from local
authorities and housing associations to  consider how building societies can
extend their products to the financially excluded. Richard Newcombe has been
a  CEO of a medium sized HA and now works in the social economy and community
banking fields.

CLTs for Community Assisted Food Growing
Steve Bendle, founder of the Bath Farmers' Market and the National Farmers
Market Association, will lead a workshop on community supported food growing.
Using  his latest experience from setting up the Badminton Project , he will
help participants think through their projects, such as a Stroud Community
Farm.

Setting up a Conservation Land Trust
Caroline Aistrop and Andy Read of the Stroud Valleys Project will present a
workshop on  how they set up this successful Conservation Land Trust-so that
you can review your  plans for CLTs.  Conservation workers and local
authorities  can consider how CLTs can work for them.
Setting up a Cohousing Project
David Michael will describe how to set up a cohousing scheme. Cohousing is
resident designed with communal eating, self contained houses; communal land
and large communal house, pedestrianised run by consensus decision making.
The Stroud project has in addition eco-houses, rainwater re-use, car-sharing,
solar panels etc.
www.cohouses.net

Who is the Conference for?
-Decision makers from banks, building societies and  housing associations
- Members of community enterprises, charities, land trusts, credit unions,
community development trusts
-Local planning and housing officers
-Investors looking for projects to back


Programme

9.00. Coffee and Registration
9.30. Welcome and Overview: Why Community Land Trusts?
          - Developing mutuality: John Parker, CEO, Stroud and Swindon
Building Society

          Social Enterprise Development and Community Land Trust
           Examples Pat Conaty, Common Futures

           A Partnership of Mutuality: Case Study
           Richard Newcombe

           Land Trusts for Community Assisted Agriculture
            Steve Bendle

12.30. Lunch: information tables

1.30.   Workshops: choose one
            1.  Steve Bendle: Developing a  CLT and Community Farm.
             2. Pat Conaty: How we can  develop CLTs:
             3. Richard Newcombe: Products for financial inclusion?
             4. Caroline Aistrop/Andy Read: Conservation Land Trusts
             5. Paul Mallet, Co-op Bank: Financing CLTs
             6. David Michael: Stroud Cohousing Project

3.45     Feedback/Next Steps: Action Learning for Implementation

4.30.    Close

Organised by:
Stroud Common Wealth Ltd, Hawthorn House, 1 Lansdown Lane , Stroud GL5 1BJ in
association with Social Futures Network,  Biodynamic Farming Association,
Stroud and Swindon Building Society

The Conference will be  facilitated so as to enable the best use of
participants time in reaching shared insight, dialogue and practical
solutions.


The Land Is Ours
... A Landrights Movement for All

The Land Is Ours campaigns peacefully for access to the land, its resources 
and the decision making processes affecting them, for everyone - 
irrespecitive of race, age, or gender.

Postal address :
16B Cherwell St, OXFORD, OX4 1BG, England.
or contact us at:  office at tlio.demon.co.uk
Press enquiries :  0961 460171
website :  http://www.oneworld.org/tlio/

For a year's subscription for the TLIO  newsletter (3 times a year), we are 
asking for £3 per annum.  Please make cheques payable to "The Land Is Ours". 
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