Co-operative Housing 2014

Co-operative and mutual housing have undergone a huge resurgence in recent years, with communities – and community-orientated organisations – creating accommodation that puts tenants first. Here we look...

Co-operative and mutual housing have undergone a huge resurgence in recent years, with communities – and community-orientated organisations – creating accommodation that puts tenants first.

Here we look at the facts and figures from a recent Human City Institute report which details how the breadth and scale of co-operative and mutual housing in Britain is greater than previously thought – and look at some co-op housing case studies from both the UK and further afield.

  • Streets ahead: building co-operation in the housing sector

    The breadth and scale of co-operative and mutual housing in Britain is greater than previously thought, according to research. The Human City Institute reveals its diversity in terms of scale, management objectives and location, and shows the sector is bigger than earlier studies have acknowledged. Over 195,000 homes are now managed by co-ops and mutuals, according to the More Than ...

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  • Housing case study 1: Lyvennet Community Trust

    In less than five years, a Cumbrian community land trust (CLT) has transformed a brownfield site, provided affordable homes and saved its village pub. Crosby Ravensworth residents formed Lyvennet Community Trust (LCT) in 2009, after a survey showed the parish needed 23 affordable homes. It has already sold 10 houses and six self-build plots, with two more of each currently for sale. The ...

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  • Housing case study 2: The Threshold Centre

    A Dorset co-housing project has cut the three main types of domestic carbon emissions – energy, food and travel. The Threshold Centre at Cole Street Farm combines small, self-contained homes with shared facilities, offering an ideal opportunity to invest in green home improvements. It has installed solar photovoltaics, a rainwater harvesting system and a wood-pellet burning boiler, which ...

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  • Housing case study 3: Watmos

    A group of tenants who took responsibility for managing their homes have developed a multi-million pound housing organisation. Watmos, the Walsall Alliance of Tenant Management Organisations, started in 2003 when tenants in Walsall took control of their homes through eight Tenant Management Organisations (TMOs). The TMOs took community ownership of 1,800 Walsall Council homes that year, ...

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  • Inner courtyard of Amalgamated Dwellings housing co-operative in Cooperative Village on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Image: Joel Raskin (CC)

    Housing case study 4: US unions help build housing co-operatives

    In the Bronx borough of New York City stands a proud pioneering housing co-operative affectionately known as The Amalgamated. Sponsored in 1927 by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA), Amalgamated was the first limited equity-housing co-op in the USA and one of the first co-ops directly sponsored by a union. Amalgamated accommodates over 1,482 families. In the 1930s, ACWA ...

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