We know that many people feel powerless in the face of the extreme housing need and lack of affordability in our city and county.
The pandemic and all the inequalities laid bare by it, have underlined the critical need to create more affordable and decent homes. Community Land Trusts (CLTs) are part of the solution to this and your local CLT needs you right now.
How you can help
You can become a member of OCLT for just £1. As a member you will receive regular updates about our work and have the chance to influence the future work of OCLT through attending AGMs and voting on major decisions. You’ll also be invited to other events for example celebratory events when we start on site. You’ll also have the chance to look at and comment on our plans before they’re finalised.
To get to the next stage we aim to raise a total of £12,000 to take us to March 2022. This is simply to cover essentials such as membership of our professional body NCLT, insurance, bookkeeping, and online communication costs. We would love you to become a supporter member and make a regular small or large donation. Any amount will help. So please…
Many have contributed to the story so far
Lots of people have helped get the project this far. The late Tony Crofts who some of us remember with his wonderful energy and verve, found our main site at Dean Court. Since then, the board of OCLT, all volunteers, have worked tirelessly to make it happen. We estimate that the time contribution of the Board every year is upwards of 2000 hours. More recently in 2019, we were helped with a large and generous donation from two benefactors to fund the work that took the Dean Court site successfully through planning. It also enabled us to undertake the detailed development appraisal which was essential for the funding applications. We are grateful to John Bloxsom for his outstanding leadership of this work.
In 2020, we had more success with a grant from the Cohesive Communities Fund. This helped us to do more work towards our long term vision. We grew the membership by 50%. And in partnership with Oxford City Council and local architects Transition by Design we also secured further funding to develop garage sites with Oxford City Council. Read more here.
We were delighted to have Alice Hemming leading this work and we will miss her very capable hands now that she has moved on. We’ve also had fantastic support from our accountants Critchleys who until very recently did our books every year pro bono. Other local suppliers have also given us discounts on printing, web design and administrative costs.
And a fundamental part of OCLT is its members: we are a member-owned organisation and we draw our powerbase from you.
We aim to break ground and start the build of the 8 Dean Court, much needed affordable homes by Autumn 2021. Our vision, that by Christmas 2022 the first residents will be moving into their new homes, is within sight!