What we do
Hastings Commons is community led regeneration. Since 2014, we have brought over 8,000 square metres of floor space into custodian ownership across a whole cluster of buildings in the centre of Hastings, renovating them to a high quality, offering genuinely affordable rents, and supporting residents and businesses to collaborate and take more control of where they live and work. Through this very local work, Hastings Commons challenges traditional approaches, creating new models of ownership, management and collaboration that can inspire people far beyond the local.
Why we exist
Our vision is a place shaped by local people, full of community-owned vibrant spaces and homes, collaboratively managed and affordable forever.
Our mission is to grow and sustain the Hastings Commons as an asset to the local community now and for future generations. We take on challenging projects in difficult but much loved buildings. For us the people inside the buildings are as important as the buildings themselves. We aim to encourage neighbourhood transformation without losing diversity and inclusion. We take action - we revitalise spaces and bring the buildings to life for the common good. Long term ownership by the Hastings Commons Community Land Trust enables us to provide affordable spaces with security of tenure.
Why we exist
Our vision is a place shaped by local people, full of community-owned vibrant spaces and homes, collaboratively managed and affordable forever.
Our mission is to grow and sustain the Hastings Commons as an asset to the local community now and for future generations. We take on challenging projects in difficult but much loved buildings. For us the people inside the buildings are as important as the buildings themselves. We aim to encourage neighbourhood transformation without losing diversity and inclusion. We take action - we revitalise spaces and bring the buildings to life for the common good. Long term ownership by the Hastings Commons Community Land Trust enables us to provide affordable spaces with security of tenure.
Check out our CEO Jess Steele sharing the story of Hastings Commons at Coalville CAN in July 2022
What is commoning?
We look out for each other and look after the place.
Hastings Commons is a collection of buildings and spaces in which commoners (tenants, team, trustees… anyone who steps up to take action with others for the common good) can connect to one another, grow, have fun and make an impact.
The idea of commoning is both an ancient land management practice (where people had access to and responsibility for common land and resources to fulfil their basic needs) and a highly-relevant current priority. ‘Commoning’ involves people working together to positively change their environment, and in doing so taking opportunities to improve their own lives within an open and mutually-supportive community.
One of the purposes of commoning is to ensure that resources can be accessed by all participants on a fair and sustainable basis.
At Hastings Commons, we consider it normal to know your neighbours and contribute personally to the upkeep of the area. There’s no classic commoner. We are all different, with different backgrounds, different ages, and different lives, but we all have a social conscience. We are interested in this place. And we have helped to shape it. It’s about being in this together, rather than feeling like you’re on your own.
Get involved and become part of our commoning community
