Who should get to live in Community Land Trust Homes in Brasted Close?

Very excitingly, Brasted Close Community Land Trust project has been granted planning permission!

This means building work should start in the next few months, and the homes will be ready to be moved into by next year. This has been five years of campaigning by so many people and institutions in Lewisham Citizens. Together with our friends at RUSS, we are now one of two CLT projects with planning permission in Lewisham.

Now we need your help to decide who gets the homes? We are now deciding how we allocate the homes - e.g. do people from the Forest Hill / Sydenham area get priority over elsewhere in the borough? How do we define housing need? We will be selling these homes at proces linked to local income, so about half of market rate, so we expect lots of interest, and need to ensure we allocate fairly. Please join in by filling out this short survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/YCYQQCX

Feel free to share with friends and neighours, or online if you are part of Lewisham-based Facebook groups or online forums.

We hope to open allocations before the end of 2019, and will be emailing all the members of London CLT living in Lewisham when this happens.

More information about the project here, and how to join as a member for £1.22, here - https://www.londonclt.org/lewisham

Thank you

Lianna

Housing in the UK is such a lottery. Here is an example of how some people will end up with a half-price house if they are able to present their needs in such a way that ticks the boxes.

Hello. It’s a tricky one, and you’re right that some people are much better at submitting evidence and making their case for why they’re in housing need - not necessarily the people who are in housing need! We go through the highest scoring applications together and contact people where we think they may have a strong case and haven’t explained it enough, to mitigate for the fact that some ppl are better at presenting their case. And we offer help for those less au fait with online applications.

This helped when we allocated homes at St Clements, our CLT in Mile End. At St Clements, the demographics of those who ended up as residents did reflect the demographics of the borough.

If you have other ideas of how to make it a faira process as possible, pls comment in the survey. Thank you. L

This should really be in the General Politics section. There are huge historic grievances around the allocation of land and housing.

If we want to get into general historic grievances about land and housing allocation, then yes - that should be a new topic in the General Politics category.

For now I think we’re fine here.

Are the properties on covenant to maintain the same process upon sale ? Or are they able to “flip” them?

Hi Jonah. All residents sign a resale price covenant when they buy, so that if they sell, they can only sell at a price linked to median incomes again, so the homes remain affordable for generations to come.

I think key workers who work in the area but can’t afford to buy would be top of my list

Your application process - is it just for the first round of buyers ? Presumably they can sell to anyone after that ?

Sorry for late reply - only just seen this! CLT homes are permanently affordable. There’s no right to buy like a council house, and there’s a clause in the lease which means if you sell it on, you have to sell it on with the same process, to people who meet the top priorities under the allocations policy we decide.

Sounds wonderful. I hope to hear of many more thousands of builds just like this!

Do you have any of the flats allocated for disabled/ special needs?

Hi Phaedra. The bottom floor flat is accessible, and while its not specifically allocated, we would really like a disabled person to be able to live there. They would get lots of points in the Need category of our allocation form if living somewhere unsuitable. We know about Lewisham Pensioners, Age UK and Disability Coalition but feel free to email info@londonclt.org if you know of other organisations we should be reaching out to in this respect!

I would love to speak to you if possible? I have a friend in great need living in a studio flat terrible dilapidation and looking after her vulnerable disabled son who is sleeping on the floor (whom she had to remove from the supported living for his own safety). Is there a possibility of your being in a position to help?

Hi, I don’t know if we can help, certainly we are some time away from the homes being built! But best email on the address above. L

I notice that https://www.londonclt.org/ now have some flats for sale, including the original one that started off this topic. I’ve quoted the details for that scheme below:

How to find out more

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• Email allocations@londonclt.org
• Download our allocations process in brief or Frequently Asked Questions.
• Come to a workshop:

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• Informal online drop ins: Friday 3pm-4pm, 8th, 15th, 22nd 29th Oct, 5th Nov. Click here to join.
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• St. Bartholomew’s School, Sydenham: 6.30pm-7.30pm, Tues 2st September
• Sydenham School (applications support): 6pm-7pm, Tues19th October
• St. Luke’s Church, Downham: - postponed

• Lewisham Islamic Centre: 8pm-9pm, Wednesday 10th November

• Rathfern Primary School, Catford: 6pm-7pm, Monday 15th November

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Further locations/dates tbc watch this space.

Our Offer

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London CLT invite applicants to apply for homes at Brasted Close, Lewisham from 28th September.

There are 11 homes available:

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6 x 2 bedroom 3 person homes - each being sold at £272, 500

5 x 1 bedroom 2 person homes - each being sold at £215, 000

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To be eligible you need to:
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• have lived in Lewisham for at least 5 years and preference is given to those in Sydenham and Forest Hill,

• be able to obtain a mortgage (which entails having 10% of the asking price in savings and a steady source of income),

• be able to demonstrate housing need.
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  Download our Home Ownership Offers / Allocations Policy.
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How to Apply

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1. Become a London CLT member

2. Complete this eligibility test - if eligible you will have the opportunity to purchase a login (£8) for our online application.

3. Complete an online application on Salesforce

4. If shortlisted attend an interview with our Independent Allocations Panel

5. Go through mortgage application and conveyancing process

If you have a read through the above and want to know more you can also email allocations@londonclt.org.