Michael Simon is the community development co-ordinator for Granby Four Streets, a community land trust in Liverpool that gained prominence when architect collective Assemble won the Turner Prize for the housing they designed for the site. He tells Far Nearer what’s next for Granby.
The idea of owning the land seemed to resonate.
What’s your name?
My name is Michael Simon. I live in a place called Lodge Lane in Liverpool but I work for an organisation called Granby Four Streets.
I love living in the area. It’s suffered from bad media in the past, like the Toxteth riots. It’s been a struggle getting from there to now. It’s been about building that cohesion together again. I’ve been there all my life and I plan to stay there, I’m very parochial in that sense.
Was there a moment when you decided to get involved?
Yes there was a moment, particularly with community land trusts. Granby Street where I was born and Lodge Street where I’m currently living was devastated by the housebuilding pathfinder project. It was designed to address urban housing issues but it was ultimately used as a demolishing project across Liverpool.
I remember the day when Dorothy Kuya, the great activist, came back from a conference one day with this idea about Community Land Trusts. For some reason not co-ops, because Liverpool was also the site of the first co-op. There were some reservations about them because of previous conflicts against local and central government. The idea of owning the land seemed to resonate.
I didn’t initially get involved, but I remember signing up as a member in 2011 at the launch of Granby Four Streets. It’s called Four Streets because there are only four streets left out of a possible 36. The rest have been demolished.
We were successful in putting a housing scheme together. We presented a vision document that gave a pragmatic solution which was, let’s look at what money is available and what resources are available and to use the shared risk. We invited people who we were in conflict with – the council, registered social landlords who we had felt had a monopoly on certain parts of Liverpool. So we’re doing this and it worked. It’s led to the regeneration of 250 properties.
What’s next?
The next steps are pragmatic. The council now fully trust us to be property regenerating company. So we’re taking up the last of the derelict properties into CLT ownership.
We see ourselves as a network of assets: the housing, four retail units, a street market, two buildings that we’re turning into Winter Gardens, a studio and learning facility.
This is important to focus all the visitors we get now in a productive way, rather than having them going round and peering in Turner Prize-winning windows. But it also builds the capacity of the community as an employer, bringing more people in, and sharing out the democratic process. Also, it’s attracting people where we used to have a brain drain.
What’s been your proudest moment?
Probably when I went up to Tramway Glasgow and saw the interior of a house I grew up in as a piece of Turner Prize-winning art. That was a moment of pride but also realizing that there was something beautiful in my childhood.
Collectively it was when the first 10-house project was finished. That was a milestone, it was magnificent.
What’s been the hardest moment?
The whole regeneration thing: people thought it was by outsiders. People thought it wasn’t inclusive enough for the community. That was probably the fault of the community land trust. We invite everyone but there needs to be a further drive to say, “You don’t have to live in our homes, but you can still be a part of a democratic process.”
What drives you?
I think everyone should take an interest in their own community. If you’re not taking an interest in the community where you and your family live you won’t be able to do anything about it when things go wrong. It’s about being involved in a community, not just the bricks and mortar, but more things like why should your child be shipped from pillar to post to take part in activities when those activities could easily take place in your environment.
Also the soft skills that people pick up from communities like being able to talk to one another, sharing concerns, civic pride, civic engagement. These are some of the things I learned growing up in Granby that stood out from suburbia which I witnessed a bit later.
How did you vote in the EU referendum and why?
I voted to remain in the referendum.
It was a difficult choice. I’m naturally a socialist, I’ve got many hardcore socialist friends and Marxist friends and they are just as vehement as people who wanted to leave for the wrong reasons, because of immigration and jobs. That’s capitalism, that’s where we are now, you can’t change that.
On balance I probably voted to remain because Liverpool was one of the chief recipients of EU money. If Liverpool hadn’t had the EU we would be stuck in the 1980s when central government wouldn’t be giving us any more.
Having said that I wouldn’t join in campaigning for the decision to be reversed. I believe in democracy and I think we have to find a way through this mess. Maybe through the city level, maybe that’s a way forward, at the extra-local level. I’m not sure, but I do know that it will cause major problems for the poorer inner city boroughs.
What advice would you give to someone looking to do something like this?
What advice? Well, there are two ways I look at a CLT. The flexibility in the model gives you scope for a broad range of community activities. You might want to take ownership of a public park without using the Friends Of model, which can sometimes be associated with private ownership. I’d always advise people to consider looking at CLTs.
Secondly, if you’re looking for a model of democracy that can be applied to any kind of urban situation or space, I’d advise it. I think that’s part of what we should be doing as a land trust. Using our status, our success in imbuing that sense of ownership to other communities.
