Ruthvoes Barns Project Launched
Mar 15, 2011 - 03:41 PM
One of the derelict Ruthvoes barns ready for conversion in to four new work/live space units.
A major housing project in Cornwall will see the creation of four new affordable work/live space units for farming families. Launched at this year’s Cornwall Farm Business Awards, the project working in conjunction with Cornwall County Council, will see the redundant buildings of Ruthvoes Farm near Indian Queens completely re-generated, providing viable business options to local farm businesses and families.
This is the second project of its kind embarked on by farming charity ARC-Addington Fund. In 2005, the charity successfully completed its first affordable housing development in Cornwall. The Trevorva project created five affordable homes from three redundant barns targeted at retired tenant farmers.
Five years on, the project has housed two families who have exited farming and have found alternative employment, and three young families who have the ability to create an income from agriculture in the area but would otherwise not be able to afford to live there. Statistically the initial occupation of the five homes had an positive influence on twenty five farming and farming related businesses. Two young families have already moved on having managed to get onto the housing ladder.
The Fund continues to encounter tenant farmers in their mid-forties and early fifties needing to move on from their farms. They have worked hard and not led profligate lifestyles, but the problem of under-capitalisation means the business is no longer sustainable. Yet these families have so much to offer; they want to work, are capable of running a business and they have acquired new skills out of necessity. In the past five years Addington has encountered families who have set up a diverse range of businesses; horse rug washing and repairs, specialist farm electrician, gardener, photographer and taxi driver. However, the charity has only been able to assist with the residential aspect.
After eighteen months of work, the Fund is in a position to purchase the Ruthvoes farm site from Cornwall County Council, where planning permission to create four work/live units has already been obtained. A very large barn will be converted into four affordable homes. A further small barn will become a workshop alongside the construction of three purpose built workshops. There is also sufficient land to create a land-based business on the site. A biomass boiler will provide heat for the whole site and solar panels will be installed on the roof of the new build workshop complex.
To date the only form of advertising has been the planning notice on the entrance to the site. Enquiries from three farming families about the time scale have already been received. There were no objections raised to the Funds planning application and the development will have a very positive impact by bringing four working families into a community which is becoming very influenced by second-home owners.
The financial viability of this project is dependent on funding from the Regional Development Agency. SWARDA have now confirmed that they will contribute €500,000 (£422,000) towards the cost of developing the workshop element of the scheme.
The total cost of the project will be in the region of £1.2 million, which Addington will need to secure before building work on the project can commence. The estimated date for completion could be 2013, providing sufficient funding has been secured.
For more details about the project please contact
Ian Bell, Fund Director tel: 01926 620135 or email
For general & marketing enquiries please contact
Laura Dickinson, Development, Events and Marketing Manager, tel: 01926 620135 email:
About ARC-Addington Fund
ARC-Addington Fund was set up as the Churches’ response to Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), when it distributed grants totalling £10.3 million to over 22,000 applicants. Now in its 10th year, the Fund continues to support viable farming families experiencing financial hardship due to circumstances affecting the business which are completely out of their control. The Fund’s Trustee’s Discretionary Fund distributes grants of up to £2,000. In recent years the charity set up a fodder bank in the disastrous floods of 2007, and assisted the many businesses affected by the demise of Dairy Farmers of Britain. It has also helped where animal disease restrictions have a negative effect on the business and in times of personal tragedy.
The Charity also run a Strategic Rural Housing Scheme, providing homes for families needing to exit or retire from the industry with no other option available to them. To date the Scheme has supported 209 families, and currently owns 41 houses nationally.
Sir Don Curry launched the Strategic Rural Housing Scheme in 2002. It addresses the situation where farmers have to leave the business and, in doing so, lose their home. In many cases there is no suitable housing available locally. For most the days of the final farm sale financing the purchase of a house in the village have long gone. Affordable rented housing can be difficult to find, particularly in rural areas.
In developing this housing initiative the Fund has moved from a grant giving activity that could have ceased overnight, to the long-term responsibility of properties and, even more crucially, people. It is therefore essential the Fund is sustainable. Rental income from properties is sufficient to cover the basic administration of the Fund and the costs of the property portfolio. This allows all donations to be invested in further properties, adding to the asset base of the charity. When a property is no longer required, it will be sold and the money available for another purchase. Thus every donation received will have a real and lasting effect.