My bill will help co-operative housing play a bigger role in solving the affordability crisis
4 min read
Co-operative housing is housing done differently. Yet while it is commonplace abroad, and rightly so, it makes up a vanishingly small part of the UK sector. Defining it in law will help change that.
On the banks of the River Thames, just minutes away from Waterloo station, are four housing estates. The wooden exterior flats are surrounded by green space, and despite being so close to the busy Southbank, the area is quiet and calm. The estates sit in the shadow of a multi-storey neighbourhood centre, home to a nursery, youth club, cooking classes, career mentoring, art groups, parenting workshops, coffee mornings and more.
The story of how this community came about starts in the 1970s, when local people came together to form the Coin Street Community Builders and fight back against the rapid unaffordable commercial developments that had come to plague their city. Fast forward forty years and the co-operative housing projects they built are still thriving, with many residents who have lived and raised families there for decades.
It has been inspiring getting to know Coin Street and to meet other housing co-operative and Community Land Trust campaigners down the years. I’ve always had co-operative values in my bones. It is not far from the mark to say I was born in the co-op. It certainly fed, clothed, and provided essentials good to me in my early years. And I’ve taken those values with me throughout my career. For six years, I served as a director of the Cooperative Development Society, supporting community housing projects and cooperatives across the country.
In a political age where people are anxious about change done to them, co-operative housing is part of the solution. Against a backdrop of spiraling rents, poor quality properties, crippling mortgage costs and a general shortage of homes, the co-operative housing at Coin Street represents a different path, one where housing estates are owned and managed by the people who live there.
This is housing done differently. Co-operative housing sits in stark contrast to the exploitative rental market or unaffordable home ownership, because the model gives power and control to the people who live there. Because decisions are made democratically and collectively, these are neighbours who have no choice but to know and understand one another. And these are more than just homes — for the people who live there, they are routes to training, education, decision-making and genuine power.
This may sound like a pie in the sky idea, but it isn’t, or it needn’t be. While co-operative housing does exist here in the UK, the model is far more commonplace abroad. In many countries around the world, including in Europe, co-operative housing makes up between 10 and 20 per cent of the total housing sector – here in the UK, it’s just 0.1 per cent.
Part of the reason for this is that co-operative housing tenure has never been defined in law. Projects like Coin Street are thriving, but they are the exception rather than the rule, and have fought an uphill battle. Without a legal definition of tenure, advisors, regulators, lawyers, banks and others, who would normally be tasked with supporting people with their housing, aren’t properly equipped to do so. Tomorrow I’m introducing a Bill to put this right. By taking the simple step of defining co-operative housing tenure in law, my Bill will begin the work of providing a level playing field for co-operative housing projects, ensuring that more communities can benefit.
The power of co-operative ownership is something this government understands. Sitting alongside the huge ambition of doubling the size of the co-operative and mutual sector, as part of our work to drive inclusive economic growth, the government has also provided support for new co-operative housing. Just last week, a new funding package was announced for community-led housing, co-operatives and community land trusts, unlocking thousands more homes over the next decade. There is huge potential for co-operative housing to play its part in the government’s wider housing ambitions, but to unleash its potential, a foundation in law is essential.
For too long and for too many people, power and control over housing has been incredibly distant. Working people have been faced with a housing sector that is broken but have had little opportunity to change it. It’s time to change that and allow co-operative housing to play its part in building a housing sector that finally works.
Andrew Pakes is the Labour and Co-operative MP for Peterborough.
