Saffron Neighborhood

Council

NeilHodgkin

Saffron Neighborhood Council

We are a small local

charity based in

Leicester with some

big ideas.

In 2008 we began to see the start of traditional sources

of income depreciate or completely disappear

The Charity’s income has gone from

2008 - £498,000

2014 - £253,000

So, we needed to find a new income stream

Saffron Neighborhood Council

We also had 13 acres of Brown

Field land, sitting on our door

step, that had been earmarked for

housing by the Local Authority for

the last 25 years

Saffron Neighborhood Council

In 2009 The Saffron Heath was born

A blue sky dream to build 50 straw bale eco-

homes in the middle of a city council estate

with a 12 acre farm at it’s heart

Providing training, healthy lifestyles and

affordable housing all in the heart of

community

Saffron Neighborhood Council

So with this back of fag packet idea

(we did think about it in the pub)

I got some local architects to do us

some drawings pro bono

Saffron Neighborhood Council

With these designs and a good sales pitch

I got the newly elected mayor to promise to give us

the land for £1, if we could deliver what I said we

could build

After a meeting at the House of Lords, the HCA got

in touch with us regarding the scheme and after

several meetings, said they would help back the

project to the sum of £2,000,000.

What could go wrong?!

Saffron Neighborhood Council

The HCA

required an

RSL to be

involved

Saffron Neighborhood Council

The Mayor said

NO!

THE END

Saffron Neighborhood Council

3 months later, out of the blue the

HCA contacted us and asked if we

could have another go getting our

idea approved

I some how got everybody back

around the table……..

In 2015 we start building the biggest

Passive social housing project in

Europe

Saffron Neighborhood Council

The Local Authority gets an exemplar eco-housing

project, to add to the city green credentials.

The city gets an external investment of £10

million into the local economy.

The charity gets the free hold on 13 acres of land

and a ground rent for the next 125.

The Local community gets 68 new social

affordable homes that are 80% more efficient

than standard social housing and access to a 12

acre food growing project.

Saffron Neighborhood Council

We have had a massive learning

curve as an organisation;

learning that there are no friends

in business and to get everything

in writing, or even better in a legal

document before you start.

Saffron Neighborhood Council

What

Next?

Saffron Neighborhood Council

As an estate we are cash poor

We are in the top 1% of socially

deprived areas in the UK

But as a community we

are asset rich!?

Saffron Neighborhood Council

The area has 3900 local authority social

houses in the area, this dose not include

the RSL homes

Underestimated stock value £320,000,000

Total income stream £21,700,000 per year

Other than rental collection and repairs

none of the rest of the income stays

within the local community.

Saffron Neighborhood Council

We think that

this situation

needs to end

now

Saffron Neighborhood Council

Charity

begins at

home

Saffron Neighborhood Council