Why Pulborough needs a Community Land Trust (CLT)

·         A CLT is needed to ensure that essential workers within our community (e.g. care workers) can afford to live within our community.

·         Only way in which we can ensure that truly affordable rental accommodation remains as rental property and is affordable.

o   Average house prices in the lower segment of the market are around 11 times the average wage making them unaffordable for three quarters of the working population.

o   An affordable rent for someone earning less than the local median wage of £20 to £25kpa is around £400pm for a single person, £600 pm for a couple - minimum rents in Pulborough are around £800pm and are rising faster than inflation, whereas the local median wage is on a long term falling trend.

·         Proportion of over 65’s in Pulborough likely to rise to around 40% over the next 10 years

o   an increasing proportion of these will be living in the community, rather than in residential homes

o   increase in life expectancy means that the very elderly need twice as long a period with some form of care assistance as was needed 7 years ago

o   need for care workers/cleaners etc in the community is soon to be at a level around 3 times greater than at the time of the 2011 census

o   overall population of Pulborough forecast to rise by around 1000 (20%) by 2031.

·         Other support workers (teaching assistants, nurses, supermarket staff, taxi services etc.) will also be needed, and will require affordable housing.

·         Pulborough is not unique, most other rural communities face exactly the same challenges in the South of England.

·         Those communities that try to accommodate such people are more likely to get the staff required; those that do not, will face an increasing shortage of services.

·         Pulborough is the first community in the Horsham District Council area to form a CLT to try to meet this need.

·         The CLT needs help from the community in several ways:

o   We need land donated or made available at very low cost to the CLT.

o   We need professional expertise the CLT can call on? (Everything from legal experience, administration skills to planning, designing and building).

o   Above all we need enthusiastic support from members in our community to help us bring this about.