Hastings Commons Community Land Trust Annual Report 2022 – 2023

We are delighted to share with you the Hastings Commons CLT Annual Report for 2022 – 2023. It has been a busy year for Hastings Commons and the report shares the many highlights and developments that have occurred in 2022 – 2023.

Hastings Commons Community Land Trust (CLT) plays a key role in shaping the Commons and providing a vehicle for community ownership, engagement and leadership in perpetuity. Owned by its 400 + (and growing) shareholding members, the Community Land Trust is the democratic part of the ecosystem and shapes the values and goals of Hastings Commons.

Here are just a few of our main achievements this year:

NEW STAFF & BOARD

  • Integrated, passionate and skilled staff team
  • Integrated Commons Board with shared strategic direction while trustees and directors undertake due governance of the separate organisations

NEW FUNDING AWARDS

  • Town Deal funding £4M for 12 Claremont, Eagle House and OBX (tech floor in the OB)
  • Youth Investment Fund £8.6M for Eagle House and OB Rooftop & Vaults
  • Community Renewal Fund £636,000 for OBX, People of Hastings project and Cult Brand’s exhibition at St Andrews Mews
  • Revenue funding from Tudor Trust and Lankelly Chase Foundation

NEW SYSTEMS, PROJECTS & MEMBERSHIP

  • New and overhauled systems – financial management, grant management, CRM (customer relationship management) system
  • Great progress with communications including new logos, posters, fliers, websites
  • Significant increase in CLT membership
  • Continuing delivery of the heritage programme (TTHAZ), alongside development of a youth programme
  • Ongoing experimentation and ‘productive improvisation’ through the ‘digital commons’ project which became OBX, the creative technology hub on the Mezzanine of the OB
  • Lots of visits, tours and sharing, starting with the spring tour in April 2022 and ending with visits by the Historic England Commissioners and the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in March 2023.

You can read the whole annual report here: https://hastingscommons.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Hastings-Commons-CLT-Annual-Report-2022-2023.pdf

“It was very impressive to see what Hastings Commons has achieved and the way the team has stuck firmly to its vision and ideals of a community led enterprise, improvising where needed and demonstrating a brilliantly positive example of effective social entrepreneurship. We all left uplifted and confident that the model that has been developed in Hastings can be replicated elsewhere.”

Sir Laurie Magnus, Chairman of Historic England