With the government’s stated ambition of doubling the size of the UK co-op and mutuals sector comes a raft of regulatory change – including, for housing providers, tighter new rules in the wake of Awaab’s law, prompted by the mould-related death of a child in a flat run mutual Rochdale Boroughwide Housing.
All of this means it is time for a new look at governance for housing co-ops, with a set of documents launched by sector leaders at this year’s conference of the Confederation of Cooperative Housing (CCH).
Katie Reilly, vice chair of the apex, told delegates the Governance and Participation Suite of Documents 2026 offers “practical guidance to strengthen way your co-op is run and increase participation”.
Broader initiatives in the global co-op movement feed into the work, she added, noting that the ‘building bridges” theme of this year’s Global Cooperative Conference is “very important to our sector”.
CCH has been working with Stop Funding Hate to counter the polarisation and discriminatory, abusive behaviour that has been on the rise in the UK. “Some of our London tenants have suffered from this for years,” she said. “They have not felt able to leave their homes.”
This work draws on the sector being part of a “global co-operative movement based on shared values”, she added, introducing a plenary on how the CCH governance work ties in with regulatory change and the UK’S devolution agenda.
Blase Lambert, head of the CCH, told the conference it had been 25 years since the apex’s first governance code; the latest iteration is the fourth, which comes alongside new fully mutual and mutual home ownership society rules.
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The new suite includes a compliance workbook; a new active membership guidance document, toolkit and survey; and a good governance guide.
Alongside this come four modern policy documents, covering governing body roles and responsibilities, code of conduct, conflicts of interest policy, and data protection guidance.
All of this follows years of uncertainty, said Lambert. “In 10 years, we’ve had seven prime ministers – it’s an extraordinary situation, we live in in extraordinary times.”
With a the UK’s first Labour/Co-operative PM now in place, the environment is changing again, with increased devolution and local government reform, which will impact on the housing co-op sector.
And there is yet more regulatory change, with the More and Better Social Homes policy, the return of rent convergence and phase two of Awaab’s law – alongside a new Decent Homes Standard, minimum energy efficiency standards, and information access rules for social tenants.
Meanwhile, CCH has been making “substantive progress” on its policy asks, said Lambert. For the first time, all registered social landlords in Scotland are CCH members; and the apex has made progress on its campaign for a co-op housing tenure – mentioned in the King’s Speech – and on bespoke financial mechanisms.
However, the picture is less rosy on CCH’s call for presumption in favour of co-ops on the disposal of public land. And work continues on tax reform, and on lobbying government for new forms of housing co-op.
Anna Spencer – board member of CCH and housing development manager at Liverpool City Region –, said devolution could be a double-edged sword. The city region model means cross-boundary local authority issues – including housing – can now be handled on a regional basis.
And where regional mayors are supportive of community-led housing, devolution should help; the flip side is that some regional mayors may be more commercially or industry-focused.
Available for housing co-ops now are means-tested retrofit grants delivered by local authorities, local support for new-build feasibility studies, and the acceleration of public land to markets
“You’ve got to work with the strategic authority on this to get support,” said Spencer.
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Speaking to Co-op News about the new governance code, Lambert said the main changes address issues relating to data management and data handling, bringing them up to date with 2018 regulations and revamped Data Protection Act; and social providers face new information access rights for tenants.
As most CCH members are registered social providers, they should already be compliant with these rules so the governance code changes “shouldn’t place onerous additional impact”, said Lambert; it is more a case of codifying the changes.
There is also a free additional tool to help co-ops with the self-assessments they are required to carry out on compliance.
As for the Good Governance Guide, this is a “how-to”, said Lambert. This has been updated to reflect regulatory changes but the focus has also changed, replacing language on “functional and dysfunctional ” co-ops which “did not sit well” with a new emphasis on “good practice”.
Also in line for a new perspective is the principle of participation and member involvement, taking it “beyond sitting on committees”, said Lambert. “Clearly a role members have is involvement in governance. But it’s not the only thing people can do.”
Participation in the community of a co-op is also key, he added. In terms of active membership, “most of what we are seeing is not how people sit on committees – it is work on community gardens, organising tenant outings, food hubs, food banks, caring or doing the shopping for each other.”
This – in line with the revised co-op principles, is “part of being a sustainable community”, said Lambert.
Turning back to governance, Lambert said the CCH provides support, advice and training.
“We don’t just launch these documents and walk away – we will do multiple online webinars, and other sessions.”
But the new set brings no fundamental changes, he added. “It’s more a case of being more clear and shining sharper light on new legal responsibilities.”
However, with housing co-ops potentially holding sensitive data on tenants, regarding their health or family situation, fresh data protection guidance has been issued as subsidiary document.
“There are two separate areas of risk,” said Lambert, “one related to being a co-op, and one related to being a landlord.”
The landlord’s responsibilities for safety are “potentially lethal”, he added, noting the death of Awaab Ishak at Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, although governance issues could still see a regulator close a housing co-op down.
Retrofit is also bringing “enormous pressure” for housing co-ops – and anyone else who owns a property – said Lambert, and how a co-op can handle this depends on their financial strength.
“I spoke at the Retail Conference on this,” he said. “There are three questions – what have members been doing on retrofit on commercial portfolios, and their residential stock; what are they doing now, and what are plans for five years’ time? It’s a challenge for everybody, especially in legacy buildings.”
The conference included other sessions on the new code. CCH associate Helen Bartlett told delegates a survey had revealed that housing co-ops “felt they were doing well on sharing information and involving members”.
But there are challenges around dealing with regulatory changes and deciding how to prioritise recording and reporting,
“The new code is a tool to help co-ops recognise what they are doing well, identify where governance could be stronger, to ask the right questions, demonstrate accountability, continually improve, and meet regulatory standards,” she said.
“It helps to assess the strength of an organisation – is it well governed, do people know their responsibilities?”
Bartlett said housing co-ops should move away from a practice where the code only comes out when problems loom. “We want to encourage it to be used as tool… where we check how we’re doing.”
In his closing session, Lambert encourage members to consider what it means to be a co-op. The basic truth, he said, is that “most people end up in housing co-ops because they need somewhere to live” – although there are co-ops which have emerged from direct action.
Responding to his remarks, audience members suggested that housing co-ops might meet people’s economic needs but not their cultural and social ones, and that there might not always be a sense of purpose. And sometimes housing co-ops can feel management-led.
When Lambert asked delegates if their co-op have a relationship with another co-op, only two hands went up; one said their co-op was exploring a project with South East London Community Energy; the second was a case of two Glasgow housing co-ops collaborating. Lambert noted that there is only one secondary housing co-op in the country.
The difficulty of pursuing a co-op purpose, he added, is one that comes with having a single definition of “co-op” to cover everything from a small credit union to a multinational agribusiness.
And the sector falls down on the co-op values of “autonomy and independence”.
“This suggests that if we take government money we stay free of government control,” he said. “Are registered social providers genuinely autonomous of government? You’re not at all. The regulator has the power to close you down.”
Meanwhile, stewardship is important, he told delegates. “When you make a decision about your co-op, are you thinking of the here and now or are you thinking about the 10 or 20 years from now?
“We have to think of families in our houses – their children – and also, will people feel safe here as they grow old? Do co-ops set rents to invest in the future or to suit member affordability today?
“What does it mean to be a co-op? Why are you a co-op? I often ask members, they say they don’t know, they just moved in. But it is an important question in terms of stewardship.”
