Commission’s 2030 aim to boost ‘tiny’ housing sector
A vision of every UK town, village and community offering residents the chance of cooperative and mutual housing by 2030 will be announced today.
According to the Bringing democracy home report, despite cooperative and mutual housing being ‘largely forgotten’ by UK housing policymakers, the sector has produced a range of selling points including above average resident satisfaction ratings and service provision statistics that are generally as good as, if not better than, those of other housing providers.
The Commission on Co-operative and Mutual Housing (CCMH) report, which will be officially launched at the House of Commons later today, also found the sector was characterised by ‘a tapestry of human interaction’ with many members not wishing to live in any other type of housing as a result.
Mutually supportive communities have, in some cases, helped individuals to reshape their lives by gaining new skills and returning to work.
But in England, the CCMH says the sector is ‘tiny’, making up only 0.6% of the UK’s housing supply, compared with 18% in Sweden, 15% in Norway, 8% in Austria and 6% in Germany.
Key recommendations range from the development of a legal, regulatory and support framework by local and national government to encouraging the sector itself to become more outward facing.
The report concludes: ‘With national and local promotion, cooperative and mutual housing options could capture the imagination of the British people, could meet people’s aspirations and could become a tenure of choice that stimulates active citizenship and community resilience.
‘The global financial crisis has meant that there is a need for an ongoing debate about financing all forms of affordable housing, including cooperative and mutual housing, in the changed financial world.’
Commenting on the report’s findings, Nic Bliss, commissioner and chair of the Confederation of Co-operative Housing, said the UK needed to ‘bring co-operative and mutual housing from the wings to the centre of our national housing policy’.
His analysis of the findings will be published in the December edition of New Start.
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