The Liverpool Region hub on the importance of local political support

Tom Chance

Tom heads up the CLT Network and leads on its strategy and its work to mainstream the community ownership of land and affordable housing. This includes public policy and advocacy work, and building relationships with industry bodies for housing associations, developers, landowners, local authorities and community networks.

Prior to joining the Network, he worked for the Greater London Authority in housing and planning policy, and as head of office for the Green Party Group on the London Assembly. He has also worked for a sustainable construction company, and as a consultant for clients such as the All Party Parliamentary Group for Housing and Planning, World Habitat and various local authorities.

Josie Howard

Josie joined the CLT Network in April 2023 as the CLT Network’s Communications and Events Officer. She supports the CLT Network with their member communications, newsletters, and webinars.

Josie previously spent 4 years at ActionFunder as a campaigns manager, running corporate microgrants programmes for small nonprofits. She also managed the Backyard Nature campaign, where she worked closely with a consortium of social housing providers and a board of young residents to create the Green Manifesto for Housing.

She is constantly inspired by people coming together to take action for their communities.

Peg Alexander

Peg Alexander job shares the job of leading the National CLT Network’s campaigns and business development work. She is responsible for our advocacy and communications campaigns and the delivery of our consultancy work.

Peg comes to this role after over 25 years working at a senior level in the public and third sectors as a consultant, chief executive and time in a Government children’s agency developing policy, practice and support for all of England’s local authorities. She works as an associate for Leeds Community Homes.

Peg combines this work with another career as a TV/Radio broadcaster, journalist, event host and speaker. Indeed, it was through making a documentary about community led housing that she made her connections that led to this job.

Abbie Haward

Abbie joined the CLT Network in January 2024 as the CLT Network’s Membership and Data Officer.  She works to improve the Network’s organisational systems including the team’s Salesforce system and the CLT sector database.  Abbie also processes memberships and, alongside Josie Howard, our enquiry inbox and member webinars.

She previously worked at a Trussell Trust foodbank as the Data and Learning Lead, working with a small team to set priorities and objectives, using data to inform changes and measure impact.

Nichola Morris

Nichola leads on the initiation and management of projects within our portfolio aimed at increasing capacity and growing community ownership and affordable housing.

Nichola joined the Network late in 2022. Prior to this she managed the Greater Manchester European Social Fund Community Grants Programme. Nichola has over 25 years’ experience in the housing sector. She led the Community Partnership Team for a large North West housing association for 15 years, as well as working within homelessness and supported living. Nichola holds a MSc [Econ] from LSE in Housing Policy.

Rachel Chance

Rachel Chance joined the Network in September 2018 to manage the operations and finances. She has a background in management, social enterprise and third sector having previously been CEO of third sector digital firm, Fat Beehive and the Managing Director of the innovative recycling social enterprise The Laundry. Rachel also has a background in environmental consultancy and project management within the third sector.

Rachel has a BSc Hons in Psychology from the University of Sheffield. She has continued professional development in organisational psychology and change management.

Beth Boorman

Beth makes sure the Network’s advocacy, communications and market development campaigns are strategically delivered and achieve the best possible results. Beth also leads our membership services.

Beth joined the Network in June 2017 as our Communications Manager, having previously worked at a resident-led housing association.

Claire White

“I support CLTs because I believe community ownership of land and assets is the best way to create places where people love to live, work and spend their time. CLTs give ordinary people a say in what happens where they live and crucially can help to create the genuinely affordable, quality, homes that communities need.”

Claire has worked at Cwmpas, a co-operative development agency (formally known as the Wales Co-operative Centre) covering the whole of Wales since 2013, supporting the delivery of financial and digital inclusion projects as well as community shares. Most recently, Claire has been supporting community groups to develop their own community led housing, including CLTs, as an enabler and accredited advisor in the Communities Creating Homes team.

Claire has a background in programme monitoring and evaluation having worked in both the public and third sectors including European-funded business support programmes. Claire also volunteered as the Wales student representative for the Open University Students Association and sat as a student representative on the University’s Senate where she studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics. She also has a BA in Creative Writing and History from Bath Spa University and completed a MA in Journalism Studies at Cardiff University.

Hilary Knight

“I support CLTs because they are a way for people get involved in shaping delivery of new housing and other land-based projects. CLTs create and embed the relationships needed to make change, without it being a threat to existing communities.”

Hilary is a founder member of Arundel CLT in West Sussex. Before that she had a 40+ year career in social housing, local government, and worked for two central government agencies (the, then, Housing Corporation, and the Youth Justice Board). She worked in Manchester and the North West from 1976 to 2000, then in London and Kent until 2018.

Hilary was involved in setting up Housing Cooperative in the 1970s and a cohousing group in the 2010s.  She has been instrumental in seeing through Arundel’s CLT’s first project into construction, ensuring a Local Lettings Policy and Section 106 Agreement shaped by the Town Council’s Neighbourhood Plan. As well as being Secretary of the CLT, Hilary is involved in other volunteering in Arundel, including the Neighbourhood Plan Review Steering Group and a Green Team set up to address the Climate Emergency at local level.

Hilary became a CLT Network Trustee in 2024 as a way of combining local activities with her longstanding interest in national housing policy. She has deep commitment to human beings, uniting under the causes of social justice and inhabiting the planet sustainably.

Julie Abbey-Taylor

“I support CLTs because: I think communities really need to take direct action in the provision of housing for their community. When members of the community get involved in developments that they want, and ones that have direct benefits for the local residents, the whole planning process becomes much easier and more transparent. People can see that there is a local stake in the provision of affordable housing that becomes a physical and social asset for the community as a whole. Such developments help young people to remain in their community and give them some security upon which to build their futures”.

Julie has been working in the affordable housing sector and housing delivery for the past 35 years. From 2008 to 2020 Julie led the Strategic Housing function for two Councils in Suffolk which included the setting up of a framework to help support the development of a number of Community Led Housing Trusts.

In 2020 Julie moved to a private affordable housing provider but maintains her links with the CLT movement being a Trustee of the Lavenham CLT in Suffolk. Julie was instrumental in assisting LCLT with their first scheme of 18 new homes for rent and shared ownership which was completed in 2019.

Julie has worked for a number of local authorities in her career to date, a community-based housing association and the national charity Scope. She is experienced in submitting and assisting in bids for government funding with Homes England and has a good track record of attracting inward investment. Julie has a BA Honours in Geography from Staffordshire University, a postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies and is a Corporate Member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.

Nicholas Boys Smith

“I support CLTs because: communities are excellent at delivering places that people like and value. By their very nature they know best what they need and want. Empowered community residents can be wise place-makers.”

Nicholas is the founding Director of Create Streets, an independent research institute that encourages and supports the creation of more and better homes in mixed use “gentle density” places rather than complex multi-storey buildings or drive to cul-de-sacs. Many of Create Streets’ ideas are now embedded in national and local planning policy.

Nicholas was co-chair of the Government’s Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission whose influential report, Living with Beauty, recommended empowering communities and supporting CLTs. He is Chair of the Transition Board for the Government’s Office of Place as well as being a Commissioner at Historic England and a senior research fellow in urban design at the University of Buckingham. Nicholas has written extensively on development, planning and the links between design, wellbeing, value, sustainability and public support as well as leading or supporting many urban design and community co-design projects.

Pete Duncan

Pete has been involved in community-led housing for more than forty years. In addition to his role as a CLTN Trustee, he is also a Director of Community Led Homes and a Director of Communities CAN, the Community Led Housing Hub for North East England. 

Pete trained as a Planner, but soon transitioned into community housing and urban regeneration. He has worked for local authorities and an earlier version of Homes England, set up and managed a secondary co-operative, chaired a CLT in his home village and has also lived in a cohousing scheme. 

Pete is the author of various national publications on community led housing, neighbourhood management and urban regeneration. He ran his own consultancy business from 1990 until 2022 when he stopped taking on paid work.

In his spare time, Pete is a wildlife and landscape photographer, birdwatcher and a committed supporter of Arsenal Football Club.

Colin Glen

Colin has a passion for delivering affordable housing. As the previous vice chair of London’s first community land trust, which provides genuinely affordable homes for Londoners, he was vice chair of London CLT at the inception of the board who were instrumental in delivering St Clements Affordable CLT Homes in Mile End.

He has been interested in CLTs for the past decade having travelled to the United States and being hosted by the Champlain Housing Community Land Trust, the largest community land trust in the US. The trip provided him with an understanding of the housing model and enthused him to dedicate his time to work in support of CLTs here in the UK.

He is a construction professional and holds professional memberships with the Chartered Institution of Building as a Chartered Construction Manager, the Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors as an Engineering Surveyor, and the Institution of Civil Engineers as an Incorporated Civil Engineer. His career spans over 20 years as part of teams delivering mega construction projects and iconic buildings, commercial office space, health care, residential property and stadia in London.

He is a founding director of Genesis Projects Incorporated (GPI Ltd). A Project Management consultancy which assists local communities with land and property development. GPI focuses on community projects, affordable housing, heritage buildings and residential development whilst allowing him to pursue his passion for CLTs.

Paul Kelly

Paul has been working in the field of community development, housing led regeneration and cultural programming for the past 30 years. For twelve years Paul led the community development function of Liverpool Housing Action Trust, a major housing led regeneration programme, where he first started to work with communities taking control of their housing. Since then, Paul has worked on Merseyside’s Housing Market Renewal Programme both with Shelter and with Liverpool Biennial where he continued to explore how artists work in a socially engaged way within a regeneration context. Paul ran the Arts Service at Lancashire County Council for five years and then worked as Community Empowerment Manager with Community Gateway Association in Preston, the first mutual housing association in England, for five years. From 2020 – January 2023 Paul was the Director of Breaking Ground, the new Liverpool City Region Community-led Housing Hub set up in 2020.

Paul was a founder member and Company Secretary of Homebaked Community Land Trust between 2012 to 2020.

Paul has been a Fellow of the RSA since 2006 and is a Board Member of Step Up MCR, a place-based giving charity he helped to establish, as well as Chrysalis Arts, a National Portfolio Organisation of Arts Council England.

Sonia Bassey

“I support CLTs because I believe that empowering and enabling people to develop their own solutions to housing problems and working with institutions like local authorities, combined authorities, housing associations, funders and investors to co-design policy and approaches to enable local developments that truly are community owned, creates lasting solutions in places and spaces for communities.”

Sonia is currently Chair of LCVS, Mandela8 and a founding member and Director of L8 Matters Community Land Trust. Taking early retirement from Cheshire East Council as Director of Public Sector Transformation for Cheshire and Warrington, Sonia is now a PhD Student with the Open University researching Black leadership in communities.

As a former Senior Manager at Cheshire West and Chester Council Sonia led the Borough’s Troubled Families Programme, the ground-breaking West Cheshire Poverty Truth Commission and corporate business and governance for Early Help and Prevention Services.

Sonia worked in social housing for 13 years and her 40 years of working in communities provides a strong foundation for her work with the Network. Sonia’s real passion lies in communities and her work in Liverpool and beyond was shaped by her early life experiences and observations. Being raised in a family of community activists and learning from some of the best community leaders and politicians at that time, Sonia developed a resolute commitment to supporting communities. Sonia has an extensive background in community engagement and arts regeneration, predominantly in BME communities and was Chair of Africa Oye, the largest African festival in Europe for six years.

As a founding member of Mandela8, which installed a memorial to Nelson Mandela in Liverpool 8, Sonia brings a wealth of experience in working with communities. During the 2020 COVID pandemic she co-founded L8 Matters CLT to empower local residents to develop their own solutions to housing and community resources in Liverpool 8. Sonia was awarded an MBE for her community work in the 2017 New Year’s Honours and in 2023 was awarded the Liverpool City Region Life Time Achiever Award for Inspiration.

Kym Shaen-Carter

“I support CLTs because I believe that when communities are empowered to lead the development and long-term management of their area, better, more sustainable places are created which provide the facilities that the local community wants and needs to thrive. Crucially I have seen first-hand that when communities lead development it strengthens social connections and improves people’s sense of belonging, mental health and well-being.”

Kym is a Development Director and Chartered Commercial Surveyor at igloo Regeneration. In 2017, she won a British Property Rising Star Award for her work for igloo Community Builders. igloo are a sustainable regeneration and urban development company who create and manage places for People, Place and Planet.