OXFORDSHIRE COMMUNITY LAND TRUST Annual report to the board for year ending 31 March 2015
OCLT ANNUAL REPORT
2015
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OXFORDSHIRE COMMUNITY LAND TRUST Annual report to the board for year ending 31 March 2015 We are pleased to present the Annual Report for the year ended 31 March 2015 under the Companies Act 2006, together with financial statements for the year. OCLT exists to promote and secure community owned land for permanently affordable homes, business premises and other facilities for community benefit. It aims to work with local communities to gradually build this sector in Oxford and beyond. It is a Community Benefit Society and its Rules state that any surplus must be ploughed back into community assets. It is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
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OCLT Annual report 2015
The six flats at Dean Court
chair’s Report
DIRECTORS Flat A
Sue Brownill (Co-chair)
Studio 30m2 fridge
recycling Oven Filter
machine
High level cupboards
High level cupboard
tall storage
fridge
Flat C
Flat B
Two Bed 50m2
One Bed 40m2
Oven Filter
The Directors of OCLT Ltd. are the directors of a Community Benefit Society (formerly Industrial and Provident Society). The nine Directors serving during the year (and who continue to serve) are as follows:
washing machine
Larry Sanders (Co-chair) Fran Ryan (Secretary)
Ground floor plan for development at Dean Court by Askew Cavannah Architects
Jock Coats (Treasurer) Vyvyan Salmon Liz Cairncross Paul Godden Catherine Little Charlie Fisher (Ex officio, Project Manager) Method of Election Directors are appointed by election at the Annual General Meeting. Directors cannot sit on the board for a period of longer than nine years.
ACTIVITY REPORT April 2014 -March 2015 A really positive year but it ended with a crushing disappointment when we had to put our first project on hold.
months to work out the S106 which only had one subject: the provision of a car club! We had submitted a residential travel plan as part of our submission and it took some time to secure the agreement of Highways. The detail of the car club still needs to be worked out once we have tenants. Funding for governance: In June we were awarded £10,000 by Big Lottery Awards for All to work on governance development with our tenants and started talking to the Confederation of Cooperative Housing about the processes involved. Shortly after this news we also heard that HMRC had given us charitable status for tax purposes. This opened up some new lines of funding such as from the Quaker Housing Trust.
Planning Permission awarded in May 2014: The year started off brilliantly when we got the unanimous support of Vale’s Planning Committee in May. It then took a couple of
Nic Bliss, Chair of the Confederation of Cooperative Homes
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chair’s report (continued)
Prospective Tenant Workshops We invited prospective tenants to meetings on September 27th and November 8th in the Dean Court Community Centre. The two events both had a great turnout with discussion on the homes, the cooperative way of running them and how much they would cost. Sally Daniels, a participation expert who has been working with Askew Architects, joined us to present slides about the design of the homes in the September meeting. The homes will be available to those in housing need, those who have a proven link to the local community (Dean Court) and those who are willing to join the housing cooperative and contribute to the management of the homes so that running costs are kept to a minimum. Decision to become Registered Provider: Although Greensquare were prepared to work in partnership with us, in late August it became clear that we needed to become a
Fran presenting at House of the Commons, October 2014
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Sally Daniels (far left) after a prospective tenant workshop
Registered Provider (RP) ourselves in order to ensure we could secure the funding we had been promised from our main funder Resonance. This was one of the most challenging but also most rewarding pieces of work we did. Although arduous at the time it has left us in a much better way and more capable of dealing with the complexities of being an affordable homes provider. We recruited four new Board Members, we further developed and added new policies (aided by many of our CLT colleagues, thanks especially to Homes for Wells). We also had to change our Rules slightly in order to meet HCA requirements. Jock took care of the more challenging bits of the mind-bending work on business planning, including tenyear forecasts, and all sorts for the HCA. Special thanks to Sean Ealey from Cottsway for looking over some of the more arcane aspects of the finances.
Place on the Urban CLT Programme:
Thanks
It was the icing on the cake to secure one of the coveted places on the Urban CLT Programme. The first year cohort of ten CLTs from across the UK are seen to be the leading force in bringing the CLT model into our cities and towns. This meant we could begin paying our first employee, Charlie Fisher, to take on some of the project management associated with getting the project underway.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us this year. Whether it be small bits of advice or very generous loans and donations, you’ve all kept us going throughout this tough period.
The bad news: We had put everything in place to become a Registered Provider with the Homes and Communities Agency before the end of the financial year so that we could start on site in late March. At the last minute an unforeseen problem with the land ownership arose which halted all progress. All concerned including the HCA put everything into trying to work around this issue but nothing could be done. So the project was put on hold, we stood down the contractor, we told funders who redirected their funds and we informed our members. It was a devastating end to what had until then been an entirely positive year but we are still hopeful that the issue will be resolved through the charity commission so we can proceed as planned.
Although we achieved a lot this year, there is still plenty of uncertainty ahead. We are confident that we can resolve the issues with the Eynsham Road project and get back on track to building our first scheme of homes. We believe we are becoming more established within the city and a real contender for delivering housing within an increasingly precarious environment for local authorities and housing associations. Oxford continues to maintain its position at the top of the list of least affordable places to live in the United Kingdom. The Centre for Cities report for this year found that house prices were now 16-times local wages, up from 11.27-times in the previous year. We don’t think there has been a more pressing time for community land trusts to thrive by getting real support for a housing sector which isn’t run primarily for profit.
A meeting with a potential tenant on site in November 2014
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finance report
FINANCE REPORT Accounts to March 2015 Members will note that this year’s accounts are the first year we have presented exactly what our accountants (Critchleys) have given us. In order to put affairs on a more formal footing, especially with regard to bodies, such as the Homes and Communities Agency as both grant awarders and regulators, and potential lenders, we have during the year appointed Marches LLP as book-keepers and retained Critchleys on a more formal basis than previously, because we expected that if our first project was proceeding as planned this time last year, our accounts would by now need to be audited. The main consequence of this is that our financial outcome looks quite different from last year. In particular, last year I argued that our funding from the CAF Venturesome fund was not strictly a debt since it will only be liable for repayment if the project goes ahead and within a particular time frame. Both Marshes and Critchleys, however, argue (as, to be fair, Critchleys did last year) that under accounting conventions this must be treated as a loan liability until it is otherwise written off or repaid. So our financial out-turn for the year now includes the amount of £21,800 plus a 25% premium instead of interest, making £27,000 as a liability on our balance sheet, contributing most of what at first sight might seem a worrying
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Balance Sheet at March 31st 2015 £ Current Assets Cash at bank 5,902 Creditors: Amounts falling within one year (10,117) Net Current Assets (4,215) Loan (39,100) Total Net (liabilities) (43,315) Revenue Account Opening Balance (19,148) (Deficit) for year (24,174) Closing Balance (43,322) Share Capital 7 Balance (43,315) Income and Expenditure Account Income Donations Interest Grant Membership Fees Expenses Research costs Legal and professional Project Costs Interest Bank Charges TOTAL Deficit before taxation Net Deficit after taxation Total (deficit) for the year
1,978 7 12,348 43 19,561 6,649 12,340 (38,550) (24,174) (24,174) (24,174)
There are no other recognised gains or losses other than shown above. There are no acquisitions or discontinued activities during the current year.
overall liability balance of £43,315. But the terms remain the same, and we will not be expected to pay for this unless the project goes ahead. They have also treated as a loan/liability the “unspent” balance of a grant we received from the Big Lottery Fund for development of the co-operative structure and member education and involvement for Eynsham Rd residents, since we would be liable to repay the portion that has not been spent on that specific part of the project. Again, should the project be resurrected and we continue with the co-operative development activities, this will not be repayable. If the project does not go ahead we will be required to pay that balance back, and so it is shown as part of the overall deficit. The reality then is somewhat less “scary” than it looks, but is presented this way in order to comply with accounting conventions. There remain some liabilities that we will owe, including loans made by directors and friends and family (we have also had generous donations from directors and others) that kept us ticking over last summer before some of the grants were received and these are not liable for repayment but these will be absorbed into the project costs if the project is able to go ahead, and if not, they are more than covered by the value of what one might call “equity” we already have in the land.
is difficult to secure any kind of funding, grant or loan, before we have some greater certainty over whether we can acquire the land and at what cost if so. So current and foreseeable future expenditure is limited to keeping the organisation ticking over until we either get back on track with Eynsham Rd or identify other projects for which we will raise finance separately, of which several potential ones have been identified. Jock Coats, Treasurer/Finance Director
OCLT LTD STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All incoming resources and resources expended derive from continuing activities.
Looking forward, much, of course, depends on being able to restart the Eynsham Road project, to which all our resources in previous years have been dedicated. It
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the year ahead
Our top priority is to get back on track with the Eynsham Road project so we can demonstrate that CLTs are a real solution to the crisis of affordability in Oxfordshire. Plan to launch the Land Fund This will happen as soon as we have a definite project. Meanwhile Charlie has also been hard at work trying to convince Oxford City Council that giving community builders financial and technical support would allow them to make a meaningful contribution to the city’s dire housing shortages. We are asking for a £5m revolving fund at preferable rates for the next five years for groups working under a community land trust model, with an established process for the council to approve applications. This would be very similar to the land fund operated by Cornwall CLT. There have some indications from councillors and officers that this might be a possibility
but it may take until 2016 until we manage to see a breakthrough in this project. Will OCLT go for RP status? Being aware of the changes in the Housing Association sector in recent years, we had always been conscious that being in receipt of government grant came with weighty obligations. In the run up to election there has been news on the Conservative government’s intention to extend the Right to Buy to housing associations, offering home ownership to 1.3 million tenants. Details will become clear in the 2015 Housing Bill, which will be presented in October. If OCLT had become an RP then under the new proposals our assets could be at risk of future purchase by tenants with a large discount. This would mean that the benefits of community ownership would disappear and the homes would no longer be an affordable resource for those in need.
Screenshot from an upcoming video created for the AVIVA community fund which will be released in May 2015
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oxfordshire community land trust
Registered office: 55 Henley Avenue, OX4 4DJ Tel: 01865 264191 e-mail: info@oclt.org.uk
Charity Number: EW19031 FCA Number: 30158R Accountant: Critchleys LLP Bookkeeping: Marshes LLP
www.oclt.org.uk
Banking: The Cooperative Solicitors: Ferguson Bricknell
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