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Witton Lodge Community Association: making a success of community ownership

Change management

Inspired by the creation of a new kind of community association in nearby Acock’s Green, members of each of the four residents associations in Perry Common were appointed as the inaugural Resident Directors of Witton Lodge Community Association (WLCA), a Company Limited by Guarantee and also registered as a Charity.

A sustainable model that can be funded

A financial agreement was made by the Community Association with Birmingham City Council to fund a 30 year plan that ensured money raised from selling land for homes to own would be passed to the association to build social housing for rent.  Also, additional funds were borrowed from Nationwide Building Society to facilitate further the Community Association’s operating model. This process was enabled by the hard work of one of the Witton Lodge Community Association’s partners, Anthony Collins Solicitors, who developed a model in which the land was gifted to the Community Association, against which capital could be raised to commission the building of new homes. Accessible land value at the time was fundamental to the financial viability of this model. This model acted as a forerunner to the Community Land Trust model, which is a form of land ownership where a private non-profit organisation acquires and holds land, putting controls in place which ensure that it can only be used for the benefit of local residents.  Income for the Association came from grants, rents from homes, and ground rents from properties sold. This 30 year plan meant enough funds would be generated throughout the life of the project to ensure proper repairs and maintenance, so that housing quality would not degenerate.

Partnership working

The success of the Community Association in allowing community led re-development has relied upon the creation of a strong working partnership. Birmingham City Council has been a key founding partner due to their ownership of land and the provision of services. Anthony Collins Solicitors provided critically important legal advice in setting up the Association. Subsequently, Anthony Collins Solicitors and Tyndallwoods have established legal agreements that ensure the smooth running of the Association. Nationwide Building Society has helped to provide capital. Local housing associations (Servite Houses (now Viridian), Bromford Housing Group, John Groom Housing Association) have developed new homes.  Relations with the local churches, the police and other voluntary organisations have been developed to achieve wider community objectives.

Community Hall Before
Community Hall after refurbishment

Building on the skills and talents of the local community

When WLCA was created, eight Resident Directors were delegated from those who had been most proactive in the four previous associations to represent the community until the first elections could be held. No ballot was needed for the first election because numbers nominated did not exceed places available.  The Board now have 8 Resident Directors and 4 Institutional Directors all of whom are unsalaried.

The new Community Association meant that residents could strongly influence the redevelopment of the estate.  By having Resident Directors regularly attend site meetings, residents were well aware they had a channel through which they could feed their concerns and priorities and get changes made. Moreover, residents themselves have had a major input into the development of new properties through outlining the brief and standards to be met - and by overseeing the work done in order to ensure they get what they ordered! Here are two simple but effective examples of how residents have affected design to make it more ‘fit for purpose’. One was when a resident noticed that windows planned for new houses were made up of a number of tiny panes of glass – pretty to look at but a chore to clean. She went to the architect and explained the problem, and the plans were changed. Again, some letterboxes were designed to be near the bottom of doors, which would have posed a real difficulty for older or immobile people besides the poor postman! Following a resident’s suggestion, letterboxes were moved to a sensible height.

Training was a daily event for activists and included residential sessions together with council officers and elected members. Indeed, it is still an on-going feature of local involvement; moreover, residents still attend site meetings and have learnt to speak up as the following local resident testifies:

One official said to me: ”I won’t give you a copy of this document, you won’t understand It.” I may not have but it made me determined to have a go. By working alongside officers we learned that we could get our point across without being nasty about it. It doesn’t take much to make you feel empowered.”

Another resident exclaimed: “Getting them to put a ladies’ toilet on the building site for our use when we asked for it was a real achievement!”

The overall attitude of residents was well expressed by one who said that, without WCLA: “... we just wouldn’t be here… we have exceeded everybody’s expectations … even ours!”

About this case study
Main Contact

Patricia Jones

Honorary Fellow

Third Sector Research Centre

University of Birmingham

Email:

p.a.jones.1@bham.ac.uk


Pat Jones wrote this case study for Governance International on 14 June 2012

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