Who we are

Calder Valley Community Land Trust Ltd (CVCLT) is a member-led community benefit society with charitable status which has been established to help address and meet housing needs in our part of Calderdale.

We are part of the fast-growing community-led housing network, where local people play a leading role in solving local housing problems, creating genuinely affordable homes and stronger communities in ways that are difficult through current mainstream housing.

CVCLT is rooted in the communities of Todmorden, Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. Established in September 2014 at two public meetings, we are constituted under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, as a member-controlled organisation. We have charity status with HM Revenue and Customs (exempt charity registration no. EW35609). We currently have more than 330 members.

CVCLT is also an Investment Partner (IP) with Homes England and a Registered Provider of Social Housing (RP). This enables CVCLT to have access to grant-funding for its developments from the Government’s Affordable Homes Programme.

so far:

We have successfully completed our development of six independent living bungalows for older people to Walsden and the bungalows have been occupied since March 2020.

CVCLT has been gifted the ownership of the Fielden Hall (previously known as the Fielden Centre), the beautiful community centre in Todmorden. We are working closely with the Fielden Centre Association, to help them in their work of running a vibrant and successful community resource. We’re delighted that in March 2021 we completed the purchase of neighbouring houses to complete our ownership of what we’re calling Fielden Acre.

We are working with other community groups in Hebden Bridge to ensure a long-term sustainable future for the heritage (Grade II listed) signal box, now decommissioned.

We are working hard in partnership with Calderdale Council, as part of the Town Deal funding, to develop a modern enterprise centre with affordable space for up to 20 businesses and 19 much needed affordable homes on a site in Ferney Lee, Todmorden.

We have, in 2024, taken ownership of a house in Hebden Bridge, retro-fitted it to a high standard and it is now let at a social rent. We have also taken on the dilapidated and long-term empty cottage at Jerusalem Farm on a lease from CMBC, and by the end of 2024 will have renovated it into an affordable and comfortable home.

We have been working for the past nine years to bring new housing back to High Street, Hebden Bridge, the site of housing cleared in the 1960s slum clearances. Our second planning application was unanimously approved by Calderdale’s Planning Committee in March 2023 and we are awaiting the final documents to complete the planning approval for the scheme.

Paul Brannigan

Paul Brannigan

Executive Manager

Paul is our first member of staff, in post since October 2021. Paul has long experience of working in senior positions in the social economy locally, having been the CEO of the pioneering doorstep recycling social enterprise Kerbside Calderdale which (in the period before recycling was undertaken by the local authority) collected recycling from 25,000 households. More recently he has been Enterprise Manager for the Elland-based social business Project Colt, a furniture recycling project which also helps vulnerable adults back into employment.

Trustee Board

Simon Brearley

Simon Brearley

Chair

Simon is a chartered surveyor by profession. He has chaired the CLT since its inception, and is also the Chair of the Todmorden community-led regeneration body (the ‘town team’) Todmorden Pride. Simon brings to the CLT both his professional experience and his strong local knowledge.

Karin Lowson

Karin Lowson

Treasurer

Karin has worked as a chartered accountant (CIPFA – Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy) and has more than twenty years’ experience working in the NHS, in fields of research, information, business planning and finance. She was Finance Director for an NHS Trust for 7 years, with responsibility for finance, information, business planning and contracting, followed by 15 years as a Project Director at the University of York as a research health economist. Her skills at business planning and the writing of business plans are particularly valuable to the board.

David Derren Naylor

David Derren Naylor

Secretary

Derren has been passionate about social housing provision ever since he started working for Hyde Housing Association in South East London in August 1999. He has largely worked as a Business Systems Trainer working with Neighbourhood Offices, Lettings Officers and Repairs Contractors. In 2016 Derren changed roles to work with a large Civil Engineering company BAM Nuttall.

He has been passionate about Older Persons Housing and providing Community based or Sheltered Housing which he believes there is a great need for within the Calder Valley. Derren has experience of projects with short term Lets, providing housing for young homeless people or housing for families in need, and, within Hyde Housing, Shared Ownership and commercial leases. These can provide significant capital gain for the organisation and indeed has been very successful for Hyde who are now actually building their own houses for rent and private sale.

Melvin Coleman

Melvin has been a Director & Treasurer of the Incredible Edible network since 2011 and was formerly Treasurer of Incredible Edible Todmorden. He has taken responsibility for registering and protecting the trade mark as well as maintaining the accounts.

A graduate in law and a retired Chartered Accountant, his career has taken him from North Sea oil to publishing and thence into the not for profit sector, finally as UK Finance Director of Amnesty International. His current responsibilities include chairing Amnesty’s international charity. His voluntary sector activities previously included Treasurer of Liberty, helping found and run the country’s first publicly funded law centre, the Public Law Project and the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.

Melvin chairs the Board of Trustees’ internal Audit Committee.

John Berry

John Berry

John, a physicist by training, has a long history of living in, and working for, housing co-operatives in London. He was Chair of Solon Co-operative Housing Services in the 1980s, and has also held positions with Birchfield House Co-op. Now retired, he is active in local organisations and is also at present learning modern Greek.

John chairs the Housing Management Sub-Committee

Dai Larner

Dai Larner

Dai has lived in Mytholmroyd with his family for almost thirty years. He is a trustee of the Hebden Bridge Town Hall Café and previously served on the board of the Hebden Bridge Community Association for six years. He was previously an Executive Director for two local authorities where he secured £23m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to renovate the grade 1 listed Buxton Crescent. He was also a director of Ascent Housing which secured £8m from Homes England towards a £28m programme to build 275 new social-rented homes in Staffordshire. He brought 4,000 council houses back into Council management, improved the repairs service and made the homes more energy efficient. He is a passionate advocate of good quality housing and community-led initiatives.

Dai chairs the Project Sub-Committee.

Anne Sutcliffe

Anne is a legal professional who specialises in Insurance law and has acted for housing associations amongst other clients for a number of years. Her ability to take a risk based view on matters and strategy is of particular use to the board. She is active in the local community with special interests in developing & growing local communities and supporting education through the linking of groups. She is also part of a community project encouraging the exchange of clothes and accessories in order to develop community spirit, reduce consumption and raise awareness of unethical consumer habits.

Sally Hinton

Sally Hinton

Sally has worked professionally in many aspects of housing development, for charities, local authorities, housing associations and government (including the organisation now called ‘Homes England’).  Until recently she was currently Company Secretary for a social enterprise successfully running a volunteer led community shop and community room in the village of Midgley (in 2010, the Association was able to purchase the Old Co-operative building in Midgley, following extensive local fundraising and successful applications for a number of grants including from charities and the Big Lottery Fund).  She and her partner have  just completed a newbuild home on the edge of Halifax, built on passivhaus principles.

Richard Henderson

Richard Henderson

Richard’s background is in the private sector, in particular the financial services sector. His career has been largely spent working for large Financial Services companies, designing and developing business propositions from the idea stage, then running projects to deliver and communicate them. He has a particular interest in environmentally sustainable and healthy architecture. Richard’s experience in project design and planning is particularly valuable.

Oliver Chan

Oliver Chan

Oliver is a researcher in the charity sector and joined the land trust to become more involved in the local community to address affordable housing needs and local ownership of community assets.

Oliver has worked in programme, grant writing and reporting for international development, asylum seekers, and employment and training organisations in New Zealand and Australia. After moving to the UK in 2015, he shifted towards research including special education and electoral politics at UCL and in public services at the Institute for Government. He has worked at NCVO for over three years as a Researcher and now Senior Research and Insight Officer, where he specialises in the state of the charity sector.

Dave Collins

Born in Bradford, after completing an Economics degree he worked in the local textile industry, which gave him a good grounding and experience in financial systems.

Dave joined West Yorkshire Community Accounting Service on its inception in 2000. He was the Bradford Community Accountant for 20 years till his retirement.  This gave him an understanding of the marvellous and efficient work done by small charities and voluntary organisations.  Also it gave him a good insight into the issues and pressures facing treasurers, trustees and finance workers.

Dave would like to use his experience in a volunteering role.  He has lived in the Calder Valley since 1993 initially in Hebden Bridge then Todmorden, Sowerby Bridge and finally Mytholmroyd!

Hannah Nadim

Hannah Nadim

Hannah moved to the Upper Calder Valley in 1998 and has lived here ever since. She directs her energies, as a social enterprise and co-operative development worker, into supporting community-owned businesses to start up, grow and thrive. With over ten years’ experience as Secretary and then Chair of The Fox and Goose (Hebden Bridge) Limited, from registering the pub as an asset of community value to the point where it is a successful business involving over 350 members, she sees members’ involvement as critical to the sustainability and success of any membership organisation.
As a Fully Licenced Assessor for the Community Shares Standard Mark, Hannah has a great deal of expertise in Community Shares, an area in which CVCLT is active.
Adele Buckley

Adele Buckley

Adele is a housing professional with over 30 years experience and a strong track record of successfully delivering difficult projects. Adele has experience in delivering housing development in the challenging Pennine environment, having worked as Head of Housing Growth and Regeneration for Kirklees Council for 8 years. Adele’s particular passion is delivering affordable, supported and specialist accommodation and during her time at Kirklees she successfully delivered a number of Extra Care schemes for older people and supported living developments for clients with learning disabilities.

She is a graduate in housing with expertise covering strategy development, options analysis including risk management, identifying delivery routes and funding sources, procurement, partnership working and on-site delivery.

Trustee interests: Trustees have chosen to voluntarily report any directorships held in incorporated bodies, any officer positions held in unincorporated associations, and current employment (where this might be relevant).