European Community Land Trust Network
Scaling-up and improving the social and environmental impact of CLTs
The Community Land Trust model has been revolutionising community-led land ownership and stewardship in the United States since the 1970s. In recent decades, grassroots organisations and volunteers have been adopting this model in Europe, sowing the seeds for a just transition towards more affordable housing. Now, the time has come to connect these organisations to strengthen their collective voice, increase their impact, and provide more people with access to sustainable and affordable housing alternatives.
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Amie Galbraith
Aga Biedalak
Sascha Glasl
Iva Lukan
And The People
CLTB | Community Land Trust Brussels
Laudes Foundation
South of Scotland Community Housing
National Network of England and Wales
London CLT
Stadtbodenstiftung Berlin
CLT Bijlmer
OFS Métropole lilloise
CLT Gent
Fonds mondial pour le Développement des Villes
Self Organised Architecture
1 — Co-creating a vision for a European Network
Space&Matter, AndThePeople, and Community Land Trust Brussels formed a joint collaboration. For over a year, we have been working closely to bring local CLTs together and co-created a shared vision for the future of European CLTs. Through our Steering Committee, future Members meetings, and workshops, we have collaborated to rethink the way we develop, own and steward community-led housing projects in Europe.
2 — Social and environmental impact of the CLT model
CLTs have unique features such as community involvement in planning and design, and long-term stewardship that promote affordability and allocation policies. These characteristics make CLTs an ideal opportunity to promote positive social and environmental impacts. Our research has identified numerous social, environmental, and economic benefits associated with CLTs. This opens doors for future work on impact measurement, case studies, and the potential for impact investment opportunities offered by CLTs.
3 — Site visits and knowledge exchange
We collaborated with our project partners to organise field trips to Brussels and Amsterdam, where we visited community-led housing projects, housing cooperatives, CLTs, and ecologically sustainable area developments. This provided a valuable opportunity for CLT members across Europe to share their insights, knowledge and inspiration with one another.
Strong movement, spreading positive impact
We have created the European Community Land Trust Network with the mission of enabling the growth of CLTs across Europe and helping them maximise their long-term social and environmental impact. We have secured funding for the initial stages of operation, to develop a business plan and roadmap for the future growth of the network across the continent. Our collective vision is for CLTs to become a mainstream option for affordable, inclusive, and sustainable land use and housing throughout Europe, demonstrating innovative approaches to delivering both social and environmental impact.
Interested? Find out more about the European CLT Network here
