Lead Partner: Stonesfield Community Trust
Description
Stonesfield Community Trust is a response by local residents to the shortage of affordable housing in this Oxfordshire village (population 1,900). Set up in 1983, the Trust has produced 15 affordable dwellings, workspace, a pre-school and a Post Office. A large amount of its initial borrowings has been paid off and it now looking at using its income to improve local youth services.
Land donation
Chairman Tony Crofts set up the Trust in the 1980s, donating a quarter-acre site in the village for the first scheme. £3,000 from a local company covered the setting-up costs, legal fees and the planning submission for the scheme of four houses. Planning permission was granted, instantly increasing the value of the land from £3,500 to £150,000 and giving the Trust the security to raise a bank loan to build the first four houses. One of the houses was later converted into two flats and a granny flat was added to another, making six homes on the site. The houses are designed for maximum solar gain and insulated to a high standard.
Ethical and charitable funding
A second quarter-acre site in the village was bought with a loan of £80,000 from West Oxfordshire District Council. Five more houses were completed by 1993 with funding from a variety of sources, including banks, donations, private loans at low or no interest. The homes are let to local people on modest incomes. They are managed on the Trust’s behalf by a professional letting agent, who for many years supplied a free service and now charges only £80 a month.
Factory conversion
Next door to the Trust’s second scheme, a former silk-screen factory has been converted into two houses, a flat and two workspaces, using bank loans together with a grant from the Rural Development Commission for the workspaces. The scheme was completed in 1994 and the loans are serviced by rents from the properties. Rent paid by an electronics company for one of the workspaces was used to clear the mortgage on the property within 10 years. The building was then converted for use by a pre-school group.
Community initiatives
The Trust has now repaid of a large part of its borrowings. It has taken over the Post Office and increased its housing to 15 dwellings. The initial donation of land made all of these schemes possible. In addition, many local people have given their money, time and expertise. The Trust has worked with the willing co-operation of its local authority partner, West Oxfordshire District Council. The clerk to the parish council and a county councillor sit with Crofts and other local people on the Board of the Trust