AN initiative to provide affordable homes for local working people in St Austell has received a boost from an innovative business.

St Austell CLT (Community Land Trust), the town’s first community-owned housing co-operative, is seeking to take vacant and derelict buildings in the town and give them a new lease of life.

Its first project aims to see 9 Truro Road in the town centre turned into four community-owned homes available to rent.

To raise the money for the scheme, the trust which has been co-founded by St Austell and Newquay MP Noah Law (Labour) is running a community share offer. It is seeking £200,000 by 3pm on September 25.

So far more than £18,000 has been raised and now Innovation Nursery, based in the Pentewan area, has announced it will match fund the next £4,000 invested in the share offer. The business will also be taking a seat on the trust’s steering group.

John Brown, managing director of Innovation Nursery, said: “St Austell is our hometown and it deserves the brightest people working on it. Empty buildings are a resource. Turn 9 Truro Road into four homes at rents people can actually pay and you get housing, and you get a town centre being built for the community up.

“We spend our days working with those at the cutting edge of food, materials and the built environment, so we're putting £4,000 behind it and rolling our sleeves up on the steering group.”

Mr Law said: “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Innovation Nursery as the CLT's first of, hopefully, many local institutional supporters.”

The minimum investment in the share offer is £20 for anyone who lives, works or studies in Cornwall, and £40 for those from further afield.

People can take part in the share offer via www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/staustellclt-phase1