Huge interest in Thame’s plan for affordable homes for locals

AN exhibition on behalf of Thame Community Land Trust, showing plans for the development of up 31, affordable homes for Thame people, has been deemed a success by the Trust.

Thame Town Councillor, Bob Austen, who instigated the CLT and is its Chair, said: “We felt that the exhibition went very well. 122 people attended the event and we now have a mailing list of 150 who are interested in the site. As you know the site is only for 31 units with a proposed split between homes for sale and those for rent. If anything convinced us that we are on the right track it was the reaction of attendees (Thame residents) who explained the difficulties they were facing both in terms of cost and availability of Thame housing. Obviously, I can’t go into individual situations but they persuaded us that Thame Community Land Trust should push on with its plans . 

“There is a clear and desperate need to help the ‘missing middle’- those who cannot access social housing but cannot afford market prices. A particular interest was shown in the houses for proposed sale. However, for the avoidance of doubt regarding the latter, everybody we spoke to understood that all the properties would remain affordable and that resale of purchased properties would be controlled, via a resale price covenant, to ensure that this was the case.

“There is no denying that there was concern expressed by some residents from the surrounding area about traffic and access over the Phoenix Trail. We will do our best to alleviate such concern, to the extent that the Trust is able, by continuing consultation with Sustrans and OCC Highways.  

“A prime motivation of the Trust is to help keep Thame families together by providing affordable accommodation and so mitigate the drift of, particularly, young families out of the town. The demand, as shown by our housing needs survey, is greater than can be supplied by one site. We need the authorities to make the availability of land for Community Land Trusts easier. We know that no one site will be perfect but the cause is.”

To find our more about Thame Community Land Trust, visit the website: HERE