Our Intentional Community Straw Man Plan

This document is a Straw Man vision of how we would like to live on the land in an intentional
community together as friends. We are aiming to inspire people and have a balance between a
concrete plan and the flexibility for people to change it... this is essentially the straw man. By
having a straw man plan we are attempting to accelerate the process of forming a collective vision
and how we plan to live on the land, together.
We would like to you respond openly and honesty, with a view to a commitment to living together
in an intentional community. Please take the following points as guidelines, that we can collectively
reshape, its not a dictatorship! We would also like you to read this keeping in mind that this is not a
complete plan and that much is left up to the collective of people who, hopefully, will take this
further.
We have broken this up into four areas with subheadings based on our discussions over the last few
months;
1. Life on the land together
2. Land Attributes
3. The economics
4. Timeline
Life on the land together
The intentional community we propose to create is a non-politically orientated, non-religious place.
We want to put friends, family, culture, music, education and low-impact living at the top of our
priorities. The culture of the space and friendships, we hope, will be the binding element of the
community, rather than any political or religious objective. It should be a fun place to live! Creating
a space that inspires those who live in it - where we can grow and change together to face the
challenges of the future - shall also engage the wider society. We want to live in a place that is
exciting, nurturing and full of our friends, in contrast to a society that suppresses much of this
within us.
Some of the attributes to living together are;
Number of people
We envisage there will be a minimum of 15 (ideally 20) people who start the community. By this
we mean those who are able to dedicate a high proportion of their time to building buildings, sorting
out planning permission etc. Perhaps working a 4 day week actually living on the land of the
community.
Once the community is established we imagine there being no more than around 35 people living
directly on the land. The community will be a place that supports people of all ages, including
children and our parents.
Low-impact living
As a community we will endeavour to build or renovate existing buildings for our homes and
workplaces in a low impact way. Growing as much of our own food as possible, including
livestock, bearing in mind that attaining a 100% self sufficient community is extremely difficult. We
will endeavour to install and create our own sustainable fuel and energy sources, supply as much as
we can of our energy demands.
Culture & education
Everyone dreams of living in a creative environment, surrounded by art, music, learning and
celebration. Culture and friendship will be the social glue, hence there will be regular social

gatherings and lots of music.

Education is vital. Educating each other and our children as well as there being an educational space
for outreach to the wider society is extremely important. As a community we can also share and
support each other in child care, caring for the elderly, and growing old together!
Our working day
We want to escape the 9-5 grind, we appreciate that living on the land is difficult but working
together we can liberate ourselves from a degree of life's stresses. With each person contributing at
least one and a half days per week (based on an 8hr day) into the community we can move towards
this. These tasks would include; food growing, energy production, harvesting wood for fuel, normal
domestic chores etc. People may also want to work outside the community in traditional
employment. In order to maintain community cohesion we think this could be limited to 3 days/wk
maximum (ensuring at least 2 days per week in the community).
Sharing, and communal meals
Sharing our resources will enable us to liberate ourselves from the need to earn, earn, earn and instil
a culture of love. Beyond sharing resources we want to strive to communally eat meals together,
with a minimum of two meals per week shared.
Community enterprise
In order for the community to be financially viable over the long term and provide a means of
employment for some community members, we feel a shared community enterprise is essential.
Such that we can generate a genuine income for the food and produce we grow on the land a caf
that the general public come to and spend money in, we see as a fantastic way forward. Other
community run enterprises will, of course, be essential but a central commonly run main focus of
community income is what we would like to see. This community enterprise would also provide
employment for those in the community (and potentially employ people from outside the
community), be run by a paid manager and small team of staff. The food it sells, and potentially
beer too(!), would be sourced from the community, providing further income for those within the
community.
Land Attributes
Property Tenure (Community Land Trust = CLT)
The community would exist under a property tenure creating a space that is free from the market
economy. An option could be a land trust that protects and manages the evolution of the community.
A property tenure would protect the land being sold for profit. A CLT is set up by the community
and for the community. The members of the CLT control it and the assets can only be sold or
developed in a manner that benefits the local community. If the CLT decides to sell the asset, the
cash realised is protected by an asset lock and is re-invested into something else that the trust's
members think will benefit the local community. This essentially means the CLT holds the freehold
of the property with families able to obtain a leasehold. This is a tenure that means that if the
property is sold by the families the CLT retains the freehold, and hence ultimate long-term control
of the property. The length of the leasehold will be determined by the CLT but will be long enough
to prevent diminishing value of the property (see tinyurl.com/nnomduj for more info).
Proximity of Living & Housing
The community will endeavour to provide beautiful low impact housing; some individual and some
shared. Ideally the community would offer a range of living options - from private residential to
communal living spaces - allowing people to access community life in a way that suits them. This
may transpire in acquiring land large enough for 3 or 4 properties; perhaps these are terraced, semidetached or fully detached, either way housing families that want to have a degree of privacy. These
houses would be owned directly by the families that live in them but under the leasehold-freehold
arrangement described above. We would also want a large building capable of housing at least 15

people renting either a shared flat/space or renting on their own. This rent will be set to enable
cheap affordable living.
The combination of individual housing and affordable rented close proximity shared housing will
mean the community caters for those who want more privacy and those who enjoy closer proximity
of living.
Location (Bristol)
The community will be within 1 hours commute of Bristol to allow for outside employment and a
healthy exchange between the community and the city of Bristol. Keeping the community free from
isolation will act as a powerful factor for maintaining the dynamism of the project. We want to be
able to engage with the wider society, with community members potentially running projects to
which the public attend, sited within the community. Also many community members will still be
actively engaged with projects and employment within Bristol.
Workshop Space
The community will need a workshop space for community activities. Beyond this the workshop
space will provide spaces for individuals personal enterprises, hobbies and passions. Granting
members of the community greater opportunity to follow their passions and personal gifts. We want
community members to be able to generate their own income from the community site, if at all
possible. This might mean some office space for people to work remotely, yoga and healing
spaces, storage space for building equipment, workshops for practical building, and even perhaps an
educational centre. This space may also be used as a place to educate our children?
Community Enterprise
To ensure a healthy cash flow into the community and provide a focal point for community
endeavour the community could have a business. The profits from the business will be reinvested
into the development of the community. At this stage the straw man thinks a pub/cafe could provide
a good community enterprise.
Accessibility
A thriving community needs to be accessible, not just so we can get to Bristol but also so the public
come to us. This is particularly important for the community enterprise. We envisage, therefore, that
not only will the community be within 1 hours public transport commute from Bristol but also the
community is sited near a road such that people can easily pop into the pub/cafe on their way past.
Type of land
The land we live on should be a beautiful, inspiring place to live, whilst also providing the means to
be as self sufficient as possible. This fundamentally means situating the community somewhere
rural, including;
woodland to provide heating fuel and building materials;
good quality arable land for crops and livestock;
space to erect renewable energy projects;
a lovely stream! Or river!
Space for individual houses, the community enterprise building, a workshop and the
communal house/rented accommodation
Based on this itinerary and other information such as average food consumption per person relative
to land use we have estimated that the community will need around 30 acres.
Economics
Communal Enterprise
A communal enterprise will assist in the funding of the community. All profits from the enterprise
would be reinvested into maintenance of the oasis. Based on a working business model (found

here : tinyurl.com/cnv73d) the operating profits of a local community rural pub/cafe are around
35,000/yr. This is once all wages and overheads are paid for. Sourcing the food and potentially
beer from the community itself will have additional financial benefits.
Employment Tax
Money from private employment could be used to reinvest in the community. Tax is seen as a
horrible word, but ultimately it provides a way of redistributing wealth and ensuring the community
is financially viable. At the moment we envisage each person would be taxed around 10% of their
personal income. If, for example, we had 30 people on an average of 10,000/yr income, this would
mean the community would generate around 30,000/yr in income that can be reinvested in buying
seeds, livestock, maintaining buildings etc.
Property Income
As mentioned previously the land and ALL property on it will be retained on freehold by the CLT
but with the cost of private residences paid for by private families on leaseholds. Hence the the
private households would not be a cost to the community. This would mean if a person wanted to,
they could pay for and build their own home. Rent from the communal living space will generate an
additional income. If, for example, we had 15 people living in the communal space paying around
200/month, this we result in and income for the community of around 36,000/yr, which would be
used to pay off any mortgage on that building.
Cost of Land
Land is currently being sold at an average 10,000 per acre. We envisage for 30 people we would
need 30 acres at around 300k. 30 acres is based on Simon Fairlies work on how much land
individuals needs to live in a sustainable way, producing a significant proportion of their
consumption. James has researched the land/property market finding examples within our
catchment area that satisfy these criteria, we therefore know that these requirements are within the
bounds of possibility!
Personal Investment
To generate capital for the investment in such a project each person would need to invest personal
funds to assist in the guarantee of mortgages and funding. All private investments would be held in
a community bank account. This would be seen as seed or loanstock funding that would be paid
back to individuals as the community generates money. The few private houses that are owned on
leasehold by families would be bought (either in part with a mortgage, or outright) by those
families, providing additional capital from the beginning. Setting these private houses aside, the
initial personal investment by individuals would need (we think) to be, on average, around 10,000.
Such that (working on a minimum of 15 people initially) the community would have initial capital
of around 150,000 to approach mortgage lenders and philanthropic donors. This will enable the
community to raise the full amount to buy the land and materials to renovate buildings and carry out
initial work on the land.

Timeline
What happens next....
6th Dec

Reflect on ideas. Check out the questionnaire. Join the blog/ forum to further
discussion and share ideas.

10th Jan

Deadline to join the process

Join the process of creating a community
Create working groups to keep the ball rolling
Finance/ Business Model
Building
Land Research
Community Entreprise
Constitution
Visioning

9 months

Definitive Group to go forwards with

Visioning Complete
Community Land Trust Formed and Constituted
Community Bank Account Created
Money into Account

12 months

Gain Match Funding/ Philanthropic Investment

15 months

Look for Land

18 months

Land found and bought

Planning Permission Process Begins
Set up begins

24 months

Move onto the land

Building begins etc etc

Steering Groups People who are interested will work in steering groups to assist in the development of the project.