Tues 10th: Ecotown debate-London/Land trust talk - Brighton

[Mark]

3 events this week:

Firstly, in London:
Local Government Association debate: Eco-towns: can we build truly
sustainable new places?

10th June,
5.00pm onwards
Local Government House, Smith Square,
London, SW1P 3HZ

    * Rt Hon Caroline Flint MP, minister for housing (invited)
    * David Adam, environment correspondent at the Guardian
    * Mairi Johnson, director of enabling, CABE
    * Patrick Law, group corporate affairs director, Barratt Homes
    * Chair: Paul Bettison, chair of the LGA environment board

More details at: www.lga.gov.uk/lga/core/page.do?pageId=659867


On the same day:

Whose Land is it Anyway? Reconnecting land with people and communities -
New Greenspeak series of talks featuring Martin Large & Neil Ravenscroft
Address: The Old Market, Upper Market Street, Hove
Time: 7.0pm for 7.30 pm start
Price: Donations



Finally, ACRE's Rural Life Conference 2008
(ACRE stand for Action with Communities in Rural England)

"Community empowerment in action"
12-13th June 2008, Keele University, Staffordshire
Ref: http://www.acre.org.uk/events_RLC08.html

This event is more aimed for members of village Parish Councils and
voluntary organisations.

However, at a cost of £175 for admission for 1 day, £250 for 2 (£150/£200
for Vol orgs), most people will feel completely disempowered as to not
being able to take up the opportunity to participate!

Sessions include:
'Community-led planning', 'The potential for Community Land Trusts', 'Show & Tell' - a multi media testimony on rural poverty by the Rural Media Company - followed by discussion on how, and also, a session on the Friday on 'New ways of financing rural affordable housing'
Ref to Programme at:
http://www.acre.org.uk/DOCUMENTS/events/ACRE%20-%20rlc08/Draft%20Programme.pdf


The blurb for this latter session - 'New ways of financing rural affordable housing' - reads as:
"Hastoe has published a major report into alternative ways of facilitating and financing affordable housing without reliance on social housing grants."


I can find no information about the report on the internet at-all, even though in the minutes to the meeting on 10th Jan 2008 of the Housing Corp's Rural Housing Advisory Group, Sue Chalkley is minuted as reminding the group of the report, noting that it was now in its final draft form and would be published soon.
Ref:
http://www.housingcorp.gov.uk/upload/pdf/Minutes_RHAGAg11_January_2008__2_.pdf

Might this session be a good opportunity for someone to raise the issue of a new Planning category for self-build via rural exception sites in local plans as being an affordable mechanism to provide genuinely-affordable local housing for local people? Perhaps people could turn up to this session on it's own?

Hastoe are a Housing Association who specialise in developing a mix of
properties for both rent and shared ownership to meet local needs:
http://www.hastoe.com/Pages/Development.html
It seems starnge that they alone should be left to write such an important report - as a business, surely they would have a vested interest to disproportionately benefit from whatever scheme they recommend involving housing associations?


To Book: http://www.acre.org.uk/events_RLC08.html