Join our Community Land Trust to transfer land & buildings in Stokes Croft into community ownership – by and for the community – and fight back against gentrification in Bristol. 

Gentrification might seem inevitable, but it doesn’t have to be. By organising as a community we can pool together to break the cycle, starting here in Stokes Croft.

We’re launching the Stokes Croft Land Trust –  a community-led charitable community benefit society, which exists to bring land and buildings in Stokes Croft into community ownership.

Join us in our first community share offer to help us purchase the freehold of 17 – 25 Jamaica Street & 14 Hillgrove Street, also known as the PRSC HQ!

When you invest in shares you’ll become a member of our society with equal voting rights, giving you a say on how things are done. You’ll also become an owner of the society's assets alongside other members, meaning you could become a co-owner of the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft (PRSC) HQ building.

Stokes Croft Land Trust Community Share Offer

The Stokes Croft Land Trust wants to bring the PRSC HQ in Stokes Croft into community ownership, safeguarding PRSC as the anchor tenant, and are seeking to raise a maximum of £345,000 in share capital to enable this to happen without any additional loan finance being required.  The minimum target is £272,000 in share capital,  at which level we have agreed a loan to cover the shortfall.

• Minimum share subscription per person or organisation: 100 shares (£100)
• Maximum share subscription per person or organisation: 34,500 shares (£34,500)
• An Interest rate of 3% annually is projected. Interest shall be paid on shares up until the date they are withdrawn. 
• Withdrawal of capital projected from year 3 onwards at a rate of 3% of the total share capital held available to be withdrawn.  
• Opening date: 25 Nov 2021
• Closing date: 28th February 2022.  The Directors reserve the right to extend the share offer if required. 

In order to encourage membership and share applications from the Stokes Croft area, people living in, or organisations registered within any of these three specific postcodes (BS2 8**; BS1 3** or BS6 5**) can invest from 10 shares (£10).

What happens if we don’t meet our target?

If we don't meet our target by the initial closing date, Stokes Croft Land Trust Directors reserve the right to extend the share offer.  Once the extended closing period is reached, if we haven’t reached our minimum target then your credit/debit card will not be charged. 

Once we reach our minimum target or above then your credit / debit card will be charged and the funds go directly to the Stokes Croft Land Trust bank account.
 

Our aims

The Stokes Croft Community Land Trust exists to:

• Acquire sites and buildings within the neighbourhood of Stokes Croft;
• Steward properties on behalf of the local community and promote engagement of local people with future of their area;
• Support local economic activity and employment and strengthen the growth of locally-owned small enterprises in Stokes Croft;
• Provide relatively inexpensive workspace and studio space for local artists, designers and craftspeople – and other local manufacturing and digital businesses.
   

What’s the story?

Gentrification in Bristol

The arts-led regeneration cycle that has happened in Stokes Croft is a common feature of neighbourhoods in decline in cities across the United Kingdom. This cycle of gentrification happens in cities across the world, from Brixton to Berlin. Access to work and event space at below market rates in neglected inner city neighbourhoods attracts artists and musicians who find cheap space in which to create and experiment.

Over time however, this regeneration and revival of community activities encourages speculative land and building acquisition and ‘redevelopment’ as ‘investment opportunities’.  While gentrification may increase property values, it also prices renters and small independent businesses out of the area.

The challenge is clear to see, those buildings within the Stokes Croft Conservation Area not already acquired for redevelopment are increasingly in the sights of institutional investors with little connection to the area or loyalty to its community.

Local artists, musicians, food and hospitality businesses, venue operators and cultural industries, being largely tenants, do not participate in this profit-taking and are left as bystanders as their neighbourhood is commercialised and they are gradually priced out of the area.

Why land ownership matters

How we currently own, manage and make decisions about land lies at the heart of many of our current social, economic and environmental challenges and injustices. The way that land is owned and managed, has impacts on all of us. It has different places in all our histories, whatever our background or heritage. It affects us whether our experience is of public or private ownership, colonialism, dispossession or migration; the difficulties of making a living in a rural economy or the daily impacts of urbanisation and gentrification.   

Gentrification might seem inevitable, but it doesn’t have to be. By organising as a community we can pool together to buy and own the land ourselves, and break the cycle. 
 

The Stokes Croft Land Trust provides an alternative way to own and manage land, collective ownership by and for the community. 

Our mission at the Stokes Croft Land Trust is to acquire and steward buildings and property in Stokes Croft, with and on behalf of the local community, for the long term.

We are a community benefit society (registration number 7004) with exempt charitable status from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which has been created as a grassroots institution, governed and run democratically by its members (local people) to acquire and steward buildings and property in Stokes Croft on behalf of the local community for the long term.

Our goal is to take land out of the speculative capital investment market, and into secure community ownership, thereby enabling long-term affordable and sustainable local development, putting the control of local areas back into the hands of local people.

On a local level, this share offer will allow the Stokes Croft Land Trust to purchase the freehold tenure of its first building and thereafter, to plan a longer-term programme of improvements to the building in partnership with the tenant PRSC. The Stokes Croft Land Trust will be off the starting blocks and at the same time securing PRSC’s license to occupy and develop the building’s space and facilities for its range of cultural, artistic and campaigning activities and events.

In the longer term, the Stokes Croft Land Trust plans to negotiate stewardship of all the buildings that PRSC now uses or has an interest in and intends to convey the buildings and property into the Stokes Croft Land Trust ownership, subject to feasibility and viability assessments at the appropriate time. 

The Stokes Croft Land Trust is also aware of other opportunities to acquire premises within the Stokes Croft Conservation Area, which are not occupied by PRSC, and has already engaged with some local business owners whose premises could be secured into community ownership should they proceed to sell them. 

Why we need you, and what you get

This is why we’re asking you to join us,  become a member and buy shares to enable the transfer of the Stokes Croft Land Trust’s first freehold into community ownership.

When you become a member you will have voting rights, giving you equal say, alongside the other members, on how and what the Stokes Croft Land Trust does next.  

It’s time for us, as local people and businesses, to act. Together we can collectively reclaim and manage local assets by and for the local community and this is a significant first step. 

With a wide participative membership, the Stokes Croft Land Trust will be a community led, democratic organisation capable of holding and managing whatever community assets can be secured within the Stokes Croft Conservation Area as an alternative, more sustainable long-term stewardship of property.   

Join us! This share offer is both our first membership drive for the Stokes Croft Land Trust and the opportunity to secure our first building and start trading.  
 

FAQs

What is a Community Land Trust?

A Community Land Trust (CLT) is a mechanism for democratic ownership of land by a local community. Land is taken out of the market and separated from the possibility of speculation so that the impact of land price inflation is removed, thereby enabling long-term affordable and sustainable local development.

The value of public investment, philanthropic gifts, charitable endowments, legacies or development gain is thus captured in perpetuity, underpinning the sustainable development of a defined locality or community. Through CLTs, local residents and businesses participate in, and take responsibility for, planning and delivering redevelopment schemes.

Community Land Trusts allow local people to ‘manage the commons’ democratically. Compared to the dominance of private and public ownership of land, ‘common land’ in the UK constitutes under eight per cent of the land area and most of this is ‘waste land'.  Reclaiming and extending the ‘commons’ is possible when people act collectively.

Joining and investing in a local Community Land Trust such as the Stokes Croft Land Trust is supporting an alternative way of managing land and buildings for community benefit in the long term.
 

What is a Charitable Community Benefit Society?

A Charitable Community Benefit Society is a not-for-profit business structure that is owned and democratically controlled by the community it serves. It is not a registered Charity but has exempt charitable status from HMRC, meaning that it benefits from the tax advantages of a Charity.

Charitable Community benefit societies can issue community shares, and anyone who buys shares becomes a member of the society with voting rights, giving them a say on how the business is run. The society operates on the democratic co-operative principles of one member, one vote irrespective of shareholding, so voting power can never be bought.

Community Shares are a form of withdrawable share capital that can only be issued by co-operative and community benefit societies. Investing in a community business by purchasing community shares provides them with the capital they need to grow. Societies can pay a modest level of interest on share capital, and you can withdraw your shares and get your money back, subject to the rules of the society.
 

What are Community Shares?

Community Shares are a form of withdrawable share capital that can only be issued by co-operative and community benefit societies. Investing in a community business by purchasing community shares provides them with the capital they need to grow. Societies can pay a modest level of interest on share capital, and you can withdraw your shares and get your money back, subject to the rules of the society.

Please read the Community Share Offer Document together with our Business Plan, and Society Rules