About us

St Ives Community Land Trust (CLT) is a non-profit organisation set up to promote and ensure democratic local ownership of land and buildings for the benefit of the community.

CLTs are powerful examples of people taking control and transforming the future of their local community. They can provide housing, workspaces, community facilities or other assets which meet the needs of the community. CLTs are owned and controlled by the community and are made available at permanently affordable levels.

Local people in St Ives felt that many developers were not delivering sufficient affordable homes and workspaces as well as protecting community spaces. Then a new kind of developer was needed. We are well placed to be that new kind of developer. Among our volunteer directors and advisors, we have housing experts, a community development worker, business owners, a chartered surveyor, Local Authority support worker, an architect and a financial advisor. See our page ‘Meet the Board‘ for details about the Board. We are part of the National CLT Network and have been working closely with Cornwall CLT.

St Ives CLT is constituted as a Community Benefit Society, (the new name for an industrial & provident society) which is governed by the Financial Conduct Authority. This ensures that funds and assets are used solely for the purposes determined by the constitution. St Ives CLT is part of both the Cornwall CLT network and the National CLT network.

Our Aims

Along with other CLTs, there are 5 common principles:

Community-controlled and community-owned
Open democratic structure
Permanently affordable housing or other assets
Not for profit
Long-term stewardship

Additionally, our aim is to facilitate the provision of community buildings, economic premises and affordable housing in the St Ives area. This includes Carbis Bay, Lelant and Halsetown. This may be through conversion, retention or new developments.

St Ives CLT was established in 2015 and has over 100 members. Our objectives are

To protect existing community buildings for community use and increase such provision
To promote local economic resilience by developing sites for small and medium-sized business and industry
To expand long term affordable housing supply

For more information, click on the below link to view our seal and constitution document which is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority.

Our Seal & Consitution document – Revised 2019 (PDF 1 MB)

What is a CLT?

What are Community Land Trusts and why do people get involved?

This video explains how CLTs work and benefit local housing needs.

About CLTs

CLTs are not-for-profit, democratically controlled, community-based organisations, and typically run by skilled volunteers. St Ives CLT is constituted as a Community Benefit Society (CBS), registered under the Co-operatives and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. A Community Benefit Society exists to fulfil a stated community purpose and is democratically controlled by its members. St Ives CLT members elect a board of directors to carry out executive functions and vote at the Annual General Meeting (or other special general meetings if required) on other key decisions (on a one member one vote basis). The voting power of a member is unaffected by how many shares they own.

Any financial surplus the CLT makes must be used to further its community purpose, and in the event of winding-up, residual assets must be transferred to another body with a similar social purpose.