http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article6164615.ece
Folks ... for those of you interested in socially affordable housing within
a community ownership construct (and its carbon footprint dynamics - below),
check out the above link in today's Times about what Eigg has come up with
and I think it really hits the nail on the head with what needs to happen
across Britain. The critical point with this scheme is that the community
retains sovereignty of the land in perpetuity, but the householder is free
to use it - consist with the crofting ethos. The only criticism of this
approach is that since the community land trust retains a controlling
interest, this can be a problem with some existing mortgage lenders.
However, since the costs of building are so much lower, and since the scheme
opens the possibility for ethical funding such as from the excellent Ecology
Building Society, then that's not such a big issue as some laissez faire
speculative types would make out.
What Maxwell's article doesn't say, probably because it was maybe cut, is
that the community have identified 20 potential housing sites and are
releasing only 2 a year. This is so that, a) their community construction
company can spin out the work and sustain employment on the island, and b)
so that new families establish on Eigg only at a rate that the community can
comfortably absorb. Also, they have a points scheme to decide on
allocations, so priority can be given to such factors as families with
skills that Eigg really needs, those with young-family potential that will
sustain the school, and the children of people with Eigg connections who
know and can sustain the culture.
For those of you who've been following Eigg's renewables electricity grid -
it has 100% take-up and is working really well. I was talking to John
Hutchison, chair of the trust the other day, and he said he'd been in
America talking about it and "what really took the biscuit" over there is
not that they've set up a renewables scheme themselves, but that what makes
it work is that every house is fitted with a trip switch, and if anybody
draws more than their limit of 5kw (10kw for businesses) they get cut off
and have to pay a reconnection fee. Because they all ran their own
generators in the past and are used to living within disciplined limits, so
far nobody has had to pay up. There's loads of press reports on the web
about this - for example
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3323875/Eigg-being-turned-on-to-m
ains-electricity.html
Another thing that really pleased Verene and I when on Eigg 2 weeks ago (and
she's away there again today with the human ecology students) is the number
of really good energy young people with island links - both indigenous and
2nd generation incomer who've grown up belonging to Eigg - who are now
coming back. As one of them said to me at a ceilidh the other day, "the
future of Eigg is in good hands." There's the dream of community ownership
12 years on for you.
Eigg is a finalist in The Big Green Challenge for reducing carbon
footprints. For more on that, and for their footprint data before and after
setting up their renewables scheme, see
http://www.isleofeigg.org/big_green_challenge/index.htm
Alastair
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