Heart of Hastings Annual Review 2018

Owning the future together…

Annual Review 2018

HEART OF HASTINGS COMMUNITY LAND TRUST

Affordable spaces , diverse

diverse communities and inclusive neighbourhoods through socially driven investment and long term co-ownership

Registered address: Rock House, 49-51 Cambridge Road, Hastings, East Sussex TN34 1DT Heart of Hastings CLT Limited is a community benefit society registered with the Financial Conduct Authority: 7604 and a charity registered with the HMRC: EW82493

Graphic Design: Erica Smith, St Leonards on Sea Printing: Fastprint, Gensing Road, St Leonards on Sea Thank you to everyone who has allowed us to use their photographs in this Annual Review.

WELCOME On the following pages you will find information about Heart of Hastings, what we stand for, what we have achieved in the last year, and our plans for the year to come.

What we are Heart of Hastings is a Community Land Trust, a community benefit society registered with the Financial Conduct Authority, a charity registered with HMRC. We were set up in 2016 to create “affordable spaces, diverse communities and inclusive neighbourhoods through socially driven investment and long term co-ownership.”

Our values Heart of Hastings operates from three guiding principles: l Quality – we build homes to high standards,

homes people have pride in l Affordability – for generations to come –

rent and house sales are linked to local earnings forever l Sustainability – we’re here for the long haul,

providing the reassurance to put down roots and the support to connect people

Our core aims Heart of Hastings CLT is committed to creating affordable spaces, diverse communities and inclusive neighbourhoods through: l Buying property into community freehold

and capping the rents l Supporting bottom-up development by

working closely with local residents and partners, maximising local employment gains and providing innovative ways for locals to influence regeneration l Focussing on partnerships with

organisations that align with our mission and values l Seeking the highest achievable quality

refurbishment and environmental standards, both to reduce carbon emissions and to address fuel poverty l Specialising in more complex or difficult

buildings and in mixed use solutions l Encouraging socially driven investment in

our neighbourhoods To achieve these in Ore Valley Our vision for the Ore Valley combines traditional community self-build practice with innovative building techniques and community-led regeneration techniques to transform a 40 year derelict industrial site into a thriving, community-owned, permanently affordable eco-village. Using our innovative Bottom Up Development (BUD) approach we aim to deliver 76 homes, 100 jobs and lasting regeneration with wider benefits for the whole town.

To achieve these in White Rock In the White Rock area we are harnessing the power of collective social investment to purchase underused or run down properties, renovate them using local tradespeople and then making them available to rent at rates which reflect the average local income for Hastings. Rents are then capped at the rate of inflation, guaranteeing affordability forever.

East Sussex County Council are taking steps towards the community asset transfer of 12 Claremont to Heart of Hastings. In the year to come we will repay their trust and enthusiasm by creating homes, artists and community space in this derelict building. We will work with Project Art Works to make an inclusive amazing space, regenerating, not gentrifying White Rock.

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WHO WE ARE Heart of Hastings is: l its members, l the Bottom Up Development Team (BUD), l its board of directors and l its staff.

Grassroots leadership: Our BUD team are a core part of who we are, making decisions about and helping to organise the Ore Valley power station site. They are all local, all shareholders and all committed to engaging and involving others in every step of the process.

Directors: Our directors are elected by our members and are dedicated to progressing our ideals and supporting bottom up development.

Staff: Heart of Hastings employs local workers who are committed to making socially driven investment a reality.

Local people: We employ a Community Organiser to engage and involve people living in Ore Valley and White Rock.

Project groups and alliances Heart of Hastings benefits from two project groups, comprised of staff, board members and local experts.

This latter category include: Kate Adams, director of Project Art Works White Rock Project Group Project Arts Works are based in Hastings and are the UK’s leading artist led organisation working with children, young people and adults who have complex support needs. Project Art Works and Heart of Hastings are working on a joint project in White Rock which you can read more about on page 8.

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Ian Sier, member of Ore Valley Community Land Trust and Hastings Greenway Ore Valley Project Group Ian is a green space champion and has extensive knowledge of the local area. Ian’s input into our development plans in Ore Valley, and especially the siting of the Greenway, has been invaluable.

Steve Foreman, Ore Valley Project Group Steve has worked in housing and he has served on the Ore Valley project group as an expert advisor in social housing. We are delighted that he is now considering joining the trustee board.

Tania Charman, Ore Valley Project Group Tania has been involved with Heart of Hastings since its creation in 2016. You can read more about Tania and her journey on page 6.

Heart of Hastings works together with local organisations, in the form of alliances. We have signed alliances with Project Art Works, White Rock Neighbourhood Ventures, owner of Rock House in White Rock, and Ore CLT in Ore Valley. Alliance organisations share common values and vision for Hastings and commit to working together for the long-term benefit of the town in the future.

STAFF & BUD These are just a few of the workers and volunteers who make up Heart of Hastings Sam Kinch, Community Organiser Sam has been with Heart of Hastings since 2016 and is enthusiastic about making his home town a better place through community led development Dan O’ Connor, Site Steward, BUD Team Dan grew up in the shadow of the derelict power station site in Ore Valley and is now employed as the senior site steward, responsible for managing projects alongside BUD workers and volunteers Cath Cooper, Bottom up development team Cath has a background in housing, forest schools and charity and non profit work. She is often to be found at the Ore Valley power station site involved in projects like the gardening project.

Project group participation can be the first step to becoming a trustee, or a stand-alone commitment.

Heart of Hastings welcomes enquires from people who are interested in getting more involved in project groups, contact us using the details at the end of this review, we will be happy to hear from you.

The BUD team is a mix of paid workers and volunteers who have come together to make the derelict power station at Ore Valley a place where they can work and grow. Many of the BUD team live in the streets directly around the site, and have been affected by poor housing, poor health and poor expectations.

BUD gives people space to develop their own ideas, confidence and for some, paid work in the area they know and care about.

BUD activities this year have included: l a fact finding visit to Brighton CLTs l film showings, l nature surveys and l a gardening project

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12 Claremont – Photograph © Casper Cummins

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY James Leathers I hope this report shows the ambition of Heart of Hastings.

There’s land in Ore Valley with so many development problems, it’s been neglected for decades. When we succeed, there will be homes and enterprise.

Rents are rising faster than wages in our town. Our plan guarantees there will be a growing community of tenants in White Rock whose rents are always linked to local wages. Next to the library, an empty building will become a vibrant gallery, where people with and without complex needs work and hang out together in a way that just does not happen now. To achieve all this, we have to believe in the best of people, that given the opportunity, they will transform the world around them.

We’re not just building homes in a new way. To be part of the growing team is a privilege. On many occasions, I’ve heard our volunteers tell a visiting funder the moving stories of the change in their lives. But they are too modest, too sensitive, to talk about the support and motivation they have given to each other in return. I have sat at Board meetings and seen the entrepreneurial determination of trustees to thrash out ways to get over obstacles and make things happen. Care for one another, grit and creativity, these are the human qualities needed on the way. It is why we will get there.

We must thank our investors and funders for the resources they have given us. They know we need new ways to tackle the housing crisis and create enterprise. Their courage has given people the power to shape where they live and how they live together.

Our ambition is a dream. These people will make it real.

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CHAIR’S REPORT Rodney Buse Over many years I have had the good fortune to travel extensively, sometimes to the most remote parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The lessons learnt have been many, but most important is the realisation of what people can do for themselves given the opportunity.

Opportunity might best be described as resources, skills and growing confidence. It is therefore no coincidence that I find myself chairing the Heart of Hastings CLT. Our values are totally committed to these concepts.

Resources may be affordable housing but extend to many others. It is skills that play an enormous part.

Skills that it is possible to learn at college, but the lessons I have learnt is that teamwork and project management are key skills required in so many environments.

Our work in White Rock and the Ore valley amply illustrate these values and our commitment.

We know this is inevitably a long game with no huge short term gains but resulting in housing and skills that may serve many generations. Our purchase of 39 Cambridge Road is an important event on our journey. Our work in the Ore valley has been both exasperating and rewarding.

Rewarding, as it has generated team work, skills development and confidence, particularly within the bottom up development team. I take my hat off to them, they are a wonderful example of

persistence and they are a credit to the Heart of Hastings.

My thanks must go to staff, trustees, funders and investors as we set course on this challenging journey. In chairing national Community Land Trust investment committees I know it takes a long time to bring about lasting benefits. Indeed, for many CLTs it is a journey that takes years to come to fruition. This is valuable time, when we develop skills and knowledge so that our eventual buildings are homes and communities, an enduring benefit to the area and the people within it.

This review illustrates that it has been a formative year on our journey. I believe it will always be important for us to remember that as a Community Land Trust we can produce outputs. It is only people in the community that can achieve outcomes and impact, it is for this reason we remain committed to playing the long-term game, however long the journey may be.

One special thing in these pages that I would like to draw your attention to is Tania’s report. Tania has been involved in Heart of Hastings since the outset, helping us get off the ground by being a founder trustee. Tania is retiring at the AGM, having been the voice of the Ore community on the board and as a member of the BUD team.

I am delighted she will continue to play a key role in that capacity in the future.

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THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Rodney Buse – Chair and CLT Specialist Standing Trustee Rodney has been a trustee of many charities spanning four decades. Initially, he was Chair of ActionAid and also chaired the Executive of the Industrial Society. Rodney’s interests grew in all forms of people and community development.

Having qualified as an accountant with an MBA and running a number of businesses, he took the unusual step of

becoming Group Personnel Director of the WHSmith Group before retiring early to focus his time on the voluntary sector.

A ten-year engagement with Community Land Trusts has provided valuable experience.

Rodney continues to have a number of other voluntary roles and lives less than three miles from the centre of Hastings.

“Acquiring funding for community projects is often the step forward to initiate change. It is people who must then create it.”

Suzy Tinker

Tania Charman – Ore Valley project group member Retiring Trustee Tania has spent her working life in the frontline of community centre services in Ore valley, working with the young, the homeless, tenancy support, managing older people’s services and now uses these skills being a local Borough and County Councillor.

Tania is proud to have been a Heart of Hastings founder member and trustee for 2 years but, sadly, is no longer able to commit to the extent that she has been. However, she believes in the people of the valley.

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Tania says “Ore Valley has my full support, I am also interested in the

progress in the White Rock”. Tania will continue to be involved with Heart of Hastings as a member of the Ore Valley project group, and looks forward to playing a part in coming years, saying ‘I have moved almost sideways’. Tania looks forward to contributing on site and will give time to do what she loves, talking to local people.

Tania now runs her own business, however adores Ore Valley, and has invested years of time there, she is well networked and says ‘when I moved away, I left a piece of my heart behind’. Tania looks forward to seeing new people join the board.

Jess Steele, OBE – Project Co-ordinator Standing Trustee Jess has 25 years’ experience of community-led regeneration as an independent activist in Deptford, South East London and then in Hastings since 2004 An active social entrepreneur, she has established community enterprises in publishing, heritage, tourism, childcare, financial management, workspace, and neighbourhood development. Her company Jericho Road Solutions specialises in supporting ambitious local projects to rescue the most challenging

of precious buildings across England and Wales.

Jess use’s profits from Jericho Road’s work across the country to invest directly in projects in Hastings, including Heart of Hastings Community Land Trust.

She was awarded an OBE in the 2016 New Year’s Honours for services to community assets in the UK. Jess has strong project and financial management skills and extensive knowledge of grant funding and innovative finance for community projects.

Suzy Tinker – White Rock resident Standing Trustee Suzy describes herself as a natural communicator with a lifetime of experience in working with people and places.

Whilst working in the private sector with British Gas for 25 years, Suzy trained in holistic health programmes, taking lifestyle change to people with physical and mental challenges.

She spent 18 years based in Cyprus, working to fight the stigma of living with learning disabilities and widening access to yoga as therapy, working in partnership with several international organisations.

Throughout this time, Suzy has renovated Victorian properties

and agricultural buildings, often sourcing materials from the environment.

Since 2014, she has been an active volunteer with Arts Forum Gallery, giving transformational grant funding to local community projects.

She says: “White Rock where I live is an area in regeneration, with outside speculation and new trends in ownership and businesses. The displacement of local people by unaffordable rents is on the rise and an active community land trust is the only workable solution for housing emerging at present.”

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11 2,400

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS Running since

2016

22

Provided work to

local people

3

People reached

£446,403 Brought into Hastings

Alliances formed with local groups

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In the last year we have: l Become a registered charity, (you can see our

registration details on the back page). l Employed three more full time members of staff,

using grant money brought into the area. l Strengthened and expanded the BUD team.

(See page 3) l Been invited to speak at a national housing

conference l Run several high-profile events in the Ore Valley,

giving us the change to engage with the local community in a way that suits them. l Bought 39 Cambridge Road, a once abandoned

office building with help from local social investors prepared to put their own money towards affordable spaces in their town.

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Events

Volunteer opportunities created

110 Members

In the coming year we will: Continue to work towards our plans for the Ore Valley, whilst working hard in White Rock area: 39 Cambridge Road, Hastings: bought in December 2017, it is being converted into four flats, the first of which will be ready for occupation this summer. This tremendous achievement would not have happened without the “investors collective”, a group of mainly local private investors who have committed their own money to its purchase and renovation. The investors collective is still open to new members, you can use the contact details at the end of this review to find out more about it.

12 Claremont: next to Hastings library, has been many things, a YMCA reading room, artists gallery, café and, most recently, a builder’s welfare office. We are thrilled that East Sussex County Council (ESCC) are taking steps to “community asset transfer” this neglected building to Heart of Hastings. In the year to come we will repay ESCCs belief in us by creating an explicitly inclusive, culturally and economically productive, perpetually affordable, neighbourhood hub. Working with our alliance partner, Project Art Works, we will make this an inclusive, space, regenerating, not gentrifying, White Rock.

FINANCIAL REVIEW Heart of Hastings believes in community led regeneration, bringing money into Hastings, and spending it locally. This is the antidote to top down regeneration and gentrification, where money is taken from the local economy. Examples include housing stock being bought as financial investment by absent landlords, making rents unaffordable for people on local wages, and the use of out of town

building contractors to undertake projects that could be completed by local firms, who can provide training and opportunities to local workers.

Where our income came from (£)

What we spent on charitable activities (£)

Charitable income

Staff costs 45,149

Big Local Grant 40,000

Subcontractor costs

Big Lottery 80,852

Travel expenses 599

BPA Grants 63,486

Rent

2,631

Other small grants

Computer and website

1,494

550

(Research on spending by local authorities shows that for every £1 spent with a small or mediumsized business 63p stayed in the local economy, compared to 40p with a larger business.)

3,486

Deferred income released

24,939

Telephone 888

Hastings Borough Council

50,000

Training 507

Other income

Ore Valley site costs

19,172

Ore Valley professional fees

19,526

Income from the RTP Play

4,041

Events (community outreach)

4,413

Share and investment capital

17,785

Community development

30,406

Other Loans 164,750

Promotion costs 4,921 Insurance 1,905

Total 446,403

Accountancy fees

722

Consultancy fees 28,228 Subscriptions

Tangible Assets (£)

Bank charges

39 Cambridge Road Purchase and renovation to March 18

518 1,073

Sundry 4,640 206,653

This data is taken from our accounts to year end 31 March 2018.

Professional fees (project management)

6,896

Cost of transfer

1,469

Interest on member loans

2,308

Total 180,951

Prepared by Third Sector Accountancy Ltd, Chartered Accountants and registered auditors, Holyoake House Hanover Street, Manchester M60 0AS Full versions of our accounts for 2017/8 are available to view by appointment at our offices, Heart of Hastings, Rock House, 49–51 Cambridge Road, Hastings TN34 1DT Tel: 01424 235901 or email: info@heartofhastings.org.uk to make an appointment.

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If you would like this document in an alternative format, please contact us, we will be happy to work with you to meet your needs.

HEART OF HASTINGS COMMUNITY LAND TRUST

Rock House, 49–51 Cambridge Road, Hastings TN34 1DT info@heartofhastings.org.uk Tel: 01424 235901 Heart of Hastings CLT Limited is a community benefit society registered with the Financial Conduct Authority: 7604 and a charity registered with the HMRC: EW82493

www.heartofhastings.org.uk