Trustee recruitment 2024

Why join us?

Would you like to join a dynamic organisation that is behind a growing movement of people building genuinely and permanently affordable homes? Will you enjoy working in a pioneering and committed team of trustees that help inspire, guide and drive the staff’s ambition and achievements? We are looking for two trustees to join our board this spring to help shape the future of our growing and ambitious membership network. 

Community Land Trusts (CLTs) are a growing force for social good. They are set up and run by ordinary people to develop and manage affordable homes as well as shops, pubs, land and other assets that are important to that community. Our mission is to make community ownership of land and affordable housing commonplace.

About the role

Working with our existing team of Trustees you will ensure that the Community Land Trust Network has the right strategy and resources to achieve transformational change, that we are well run and thrive as an organisation.

Key tasks and accountabilities are

• Ensure the charity acts for public benefit, is meeting its objects set out in the constitution and retains its ethos and values.
• Ensure the charity has a clear vision and strategy, and business plan focused on achievement
• Oversee the chief executive’s discharge of the Network’s business plan through agreeing performance targets, supporting them and holding them to account for achieving this efficiently and effectively
• Manage resources responsibly and ensure the viability of the organisation: Act as guardians for the charity’s assets and ensure the stability of the organisation 
• People: responsibility for and to staff, members and volunteers 
• Act with reasonable care and skill and in the charity’s best interests. By understanding your responsibilities and complying with the Trustees Code of Conduct.
• Develop and ensure the maintenance of a properly constituted, balanced and competent Board.
• Oversee the discharge of all legal, regulatory and contractual obligations and requirements, and ensure the charity is accountable.

Details

Currently there are seven trustees. We would like to recruit two new trustees so that we have nine in total.

The Board meets quarterly for 2-3 hour meetings, typically two meetings are in person and two are online. Some years we have a joint staff and trustee residential event over the course of two days. Trustees are also encouraged to attend our AGM which is online on a Saturday in November. Travel, subsistence and accommodation expenses are reimbursed. Some work may be required in between meetings over email. The role is voluntary and unpaid.

What is the Community Land Trust Network?

Community Land Trusts – or CLTs – give ordinary people the means to steward land for local wellbeing, developing and managing affordable homes and other assets important to their local community. There are now over 350 CLTs which between them own more than 2000 homes as well as shops, pubs, workspace, renewable energy and farmland. They range from small projects of a few homes to a forthcoming 500-home garden village and an occupied 600-home urban social housing estate.

The Community Land Trust Network was established in 2010. We are the national membership charity for CLTs in England and Wales and work with a network of local enabling organisations and other national community led housing (CLH) partners. We provide resources, training and advice for CLTs and work with national and local government, housing associations, developers, lenders and funders to establish the best conditions for CLTs to grow and flourish. In the short time that the Community Land Trust Network has been around it has achieved a significant amount and is known as one of the most effective lobbying organisations in Westminster.

Some of the notable achievements include:

• Taking a leading role in developing an effective and self-sustaining body of expertise in the wider industry to enable CLTs.
• Securing the Community Housing Fund from the government which has put £300m on the table for community led housing since 2016.
• Ensuring CLTs are able to protect their affordable homes with exemptions from the ban on ground rents, the voluntary right to buy and the right to shared ownership.
• Successfully delivering major grant-funded programmes worth in excess of £8 million to develop CLTs and the sector.

What can you bring to the Network? 

To achieve the Community Land Trust Network’s vision and goals, the Network needs people with sound judgement who will enjoy guiding the team to achieve our ambitions.

It’s important to us that you feel strongly about the importance of social justice and the difference that community land trust can make in meeting that aim.

While we welcome interest from a wide variety of backgrounds we are looking for people with some of the following attributes in particular, to compliment the of skills of our current board (note you do not have to have every skill listed here):

• Sector knowledge, in particular
  • Board level member of a CLT
  • Housing, planning and development
  • Sector regulators and regulation
  • Innovation and achieving systems change
• Experience in Management
  • Strategy and business plan development
  • HR, Employment law and practice
  • Recruitment and selection
  • Previous board experience is desirable (charity or non-charity)
  • Organisational resilience and change management
• Experience in charities:
  • Charity governance and regulation
  • Membership bodies
  • Funders and fundraising
• Experience in financial management, in particular
  • Budget setting
  • Accountants
  • Financial Directors
  • Chief Operating Officers
  • Charity finance background
• Geographical spread: we would welcome applicants from Yorkshire and Humber, the North West and the Midlands, and more generally rural CLTs.
• Diversity: We particularly welcome applications from women and/or a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic candidate as they are underrepresented in our organisation at this level.

Next steps

If you feel the role is for you, please download and read our full trustee recruitment pack for more information on the role and how to apply. To apply please complete an expression of interest using this online form

Please email us at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Timetable

Expressions of interest should be submitted by midday on 8th April. Interviews will take place in late May and we aim to co-opt the new trustees in June.

Notable dates: there is a staff and trustee away day spanning the 9th and 10th of July, the board meeting will be on the morning of the 10th and can be joined virtually. We also have a board meeting on October 22nd and our AGM will take place in November, provisional date Saturday 23rd November.