Case Study: Distington Big Local, Cumbria
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CASE STUDY: DISTINGTON BIG LOCAL, CUMBRIA Distington is a large village in North West Cumbria, equidistant from Workington and Whitehaven. In 2012, the village became one of 150 communities across England to benefit from a major Big Lottery programme called Big Local. With a budget of over £1 million to spend over the following ten years and very little bureaucracy to get in the way, the local community of just 1700 households came together to draw up plans for how it should be spent. They formed a resident-controlled partnership and set about doing what they could to make Distington a better place to live and help change people’s lives for the better. Distington had experienced some difficult times before Big Local came along. A large former Council estate in the village had become increasingly unpopular – mainly due to people being moved into the village from trouble spots elsewhere. This eventually led to the demolition of some of the homes, leaving behind some large empty spaces. Crime and anti- social behaviour were on the increase and some residents had decided to move away. The community were determined to turn this negative image around and make the village a place where people would want to come and live once again. A million pounds would help, but although providing new homes was seen as an important element of this change, the sheer scale of the task meant that ambition was initially put on the back burner. Supporting local groups, investing in important community facilities and setting up a new village maintenance initiative took priority. Acquiring a development site Then, in 2016, an opportunity arose which changed everyone’s mindset. A large 1.7 acre derelict site, owned by the Royal British Legion, was unexpectedly put up for sale. Right in the heart of the village, it was an eyesore and had been used for years by fly-tippers. The Big Local Partnership was approached by local residents asking if it could buy the land for the village; it called a public meeting to gauge the level of community support for a bid and received unanimous support. The Partnership inevitably found itself up against private developers, but Distington is a low value area and there was always a possibility that residents could use a large chunk of their Lottery funding to outbid them. And so it proved; £80,000 secured the site. Four years into the Big Local project, the Partnership had ‘gelled’, were more experienced and also more confident about taking on bigger challenges. Supported by its development worker, it had taken on responsibility for handling all its own finances – something that had previously been contracted out to the local Council for Voluntary Service. Distington Big Local registered as a Company Limited by Guarantee, but has since begun the process of converting to a charitable Community Benefit Society. Feasibility work and community engagement With the site secured, the Partnership then set about reaching agreement on what it should be used for – not the normal way in which community led housing schemes get started. With a £15,750 grant from the Copeland Community Fund in 2017, the Partnership 1 appointed a Liverpool-based architect with a strong track record in community-led design, to look at what could be achieved on the site and carry out a major community engagement programme. It also set up a Land Development Group to manage the process. Although residents came up with many suggestions – including a swimming pool and allotments - it soon became clear that housing was a popular option. Although family housing was not in short supply, two local residential care homes had recently closed and older people were increasingly having to move away from the village to find appropriate homes to meet their needs. A village survey suggested that older persons housing was a popular option for the site and this was subsequently confirmed through a Community Planning Event, attended by more than 200 people on a wet Saturday in September 2018. An initial set of plans and a model of what might be provided on the site saw nearly 80% of those attending express support for the idea. The Partnership also used this event to float the idea of dementia-friendly design, having been to the Building Research Establishment in Watford with their Architect to view a full size house built to design for dementia principles. This now became a key feature of how the scheme was to evolve, alongside a commitment that most of the newly-built bungalows and apartments would be for affordable or social rent, with a small number for shared ownership. Going it alone or partnering up? With a clear view of what they wanted to see built, the Partnership now had to make some difficult decisions on how they were going to manage the process and how to raise the necessary funds to move the scheme forward to a full planning application. With help from their Big Local Advisor and an external community led housing specialist, the Land Development Group held a series of briefing sessions to look in detail at the options. It soon became obvious to everyone that the housing scheme would be a tremendous legacy for the village and a lasting tribute to the huge amount of voluntary effort that the Partnership’s residents had invested in the Big Local programme. It also became obvious that the scheme might generate a significant annual income for the village once Big Local had gone, perhaps enabling some of the projects it had supported to continue well into the future. It was an attractive prospect. But the advantages of ‘developing out’ the scheme themselves and subsequently managing it as a community asset posed many challenges. The Partnership would have to become a Registered Provider, would have to take on considerable financial risk and long-term responsibility and not see any significant surplus income for the village for many years. They would also be developing and managing a very large and complex housing scheme which needed specialist skills and experience to be successful. After much discussion the Partnership decided this was a step too far, not least because most of the residents round the table were in the older category themselves and many were simply running out of steam. So, partnering with a housing association came to be seen as the best way forward. 2 Partnering on the community’s terms However, the Partnership was determined to ensure that the project they had put so much time and effort into was not simply handed over to a housing association at the earliest opportunity. They were committed to retaining the land as a community asset, but also wanted to retain control of the design as it developed and that meant raising enough funds to commission all the technical professionals they would need to take the scheme up to planning approval. Only towards the end of that stage of the development process would they begin talking to housing associations that might be prepared to partner with them. It was a risky strategy; West Cumbria is not a part of the country where housing associations have a track record of working closely with local communities; and this would be the first community-led housing project in the area. What would happen if no associations came forward to partner up, didn’t like the scheme that the Partnership had developed or decided it was not financially viable for them? Taking the scheme through to planning approval All the Big Locals across the country have, since they started, been encouraged to take risks with their funding and not always go for the safe, conventional options. Distington Big Local decided to plough on and stay in control. In 2018, the Partnership applied for and received a £157,500 grant from Homes England’s Community Housing Fund. With additional match funding from their Big Local pot, this enabled them to commission an architect, development consultant and employers agent and also pay for a whole range of technical surveys as well as the planning application fee. The Halsall Lloyd Partnership was appointed as the scheme architect following a tendering process – the same practice that had carried out the initial feasibility and community engagement work. With an experienced ex-housing association development consultant and employers agent on board, it soon became obvious that the original sketch plans to build 9 bungalows and 32 apartments for rent would need to be revised to deliver a financially viable scheme. Meeting monthly, the residents on the Land Development Group and their technical team worked their way through the many intricacies of a major development project. There were presentations to senior officers at Copeland Council and pre-application meetings with planners and highway engineers, all of which demonstrated great enthusiasm and commitment to the scheme by the local authority. It was a steep learning curve for residents, but they remained firmly in the driving seat throughout. They were determined to ensure that the principles they had set for the development right from the start should be upheld in the final design. It is a testament to their determination that this has been achieved – the design of the apartments includes an impressive atrium and a range of community facilities, including a café, designed to make the scheme as open and welcoming to the wider community as possible. 3 To meet the financial viability appraisal, the scheme has been re-designed to include 45 x 1 and 2 bed apartments – all for social rent, plus the 9 x 2 bed dementia friendly bungalows for shared ownership; 54 homes in all.