CCH Bulletin January 1999
The Newsletter for the Co-operative Housing Movement in England and Wales.
In This Issue:
- Editorial
- Major Housing Co-op Development For Redditch
- TMOs Think Tank
- Help For TMOs / Housing Corporation Standards
- Co-operative Bank Approach
- Regional Events Start Soon...
- Investigating Housing Co-ops
- All Party Political Support
As a co-operative newsletter, CCH Bulletin welcomes comment and articles for publication from all. In view of this, comments and views expressed might not represent the views and policy of the CCH. The name and address of an article writer can be withheld upon request. Anonymous submissions will be disregarded. Unsigned articles can be taken as being supplied by one or more members of the CCH Publicity and Information Sub Group, who are; Charlie Baker, Viv Harrison, Andy Moran, Elaine Okoro.
Editorial
by Andy Moran, Mushroom Housing Co-op
Welcome to the new style CCH Bulletin.
The newly formed Publicity and Information sub group has become responsible for CCH Bulletin, to enable more people with more views to be more involved, as well as to give Nic Bliss some rest.
I would pay tribute for the time and effort that Nic has put into CCH Bulletin thus far, which has given the sub-group something to work with, as opposed to from scratch. Not that Nic won't still be writing for the bulletin!
As well as news, we will have views.
There are people out there who do housing co-ops down. Why? It can only be to put themselves in a better light, for we are the good, the great and the wonderful, and we are not afraid to say so, to ourselves, to our detractors and to the Government and, well anyone who's ear we can bend.
On December 9th, BBC2 showed how great a place a housing co-op can be. There must be loads of stories out there. Tell us about them. Tell the BBC about them.
Tell everyone about them!
AJM
Major Housing Co-op Development For Redditch
[Cllr Ken Somner, Chair of Redditch Co-op Homes, Sarah and Ashley Alison, Melen Street Housing Co-op, and Jacqui Smith MP, launching Melen Street Housing Co-op.]
Jacqui Smith, MP for Redditch, and Sarah Alison, a prospective Melen Street Housing Co-op member, officially starting building work in December on their new 23 property Co-operative development in Redditch.
Melen Street is the first phase of the Redditch Co-operative Homes development programme, currently the largest in the country, incorporating 120 co-operative homes to be built over the next 18 months.
Redditch Co-operative Homes has come about through the enthusiasm for co-operative housing in Redditch Borough Council, who see the housing co-operative model as not only providing housing for people in housing need in Redditch, but also providing significant social and community benefits. In order to develop the housing co-ops in the increasingly competitive housing association environment, Redditch Borough Council have established a partnership with Accord Housing Association and Birmingham Co-operative Housing Services (CHS), a partnership borne out of their commitment to housing co-operatives.
Training to enable the potential co-operators to make decisions about their future homes, and to empower them to run their co-operatives, started in Autumn @98. A double-decker bus was needed to ship the many potential new co-operators to visit other co-operatives in the Midlands.
Sarah Alison commented that "its brilliant that we have this level of control, and I'm really looking forward to the co-op starting."
Carl Taylor, Redditch Co-operative Homes
TMOs Think Tank
Last November, Dr. Anne Power, of London School of Economics (LSE) Housing, brought together about two dozen Tenant Management Organisations (TMOs) at the National Tenant Resource Centre in Chester, to act as a 'Think Tank'.
The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) sent two staff to observe as co-ops and Estate Management Boards (EMBs) from council estates, shared best practice and swapped horror stories. CCH passed on three such stories from its member co-ops. LSE Housing will circulate a paper including the 'best practice' and 'good news' anecdotes from the think tank to every local authority housing department in England.
From informal chats between sessions, many TMCs and EMBs expressed the wish to move into ownership of their own homes.
One - Wilfrid East, in Tower Hamlets, London - was already doing so. We learnt from DETR of just one failing TMO out of 150.
Two councillors had taken over control from the tenants' representatives. They made the organisation "start behaving like a council" and lost the faith of tenants on the estate. This could not have happened to a TMC!
The picture developed here reflects what Price Waterhouse found in 1995. The more control tenants have, the better.
Moves are afoot to reinvigorate the National Federation of TMOs. The CCH warmly supported the tenants working on this and offered our help, if needed.
The DETR pledged to listen and to continue to support TMOs.
Andy Hansford, CCH Development and Support Worker
Tenant Management Organisations
Getting on with the landlord? Can we help?
At the recent TMO Think Tank, held at the National Tenants Resource Centre, Chester, many TMOs reported that relationships between TMOs and their local authorities are not always what they should be.
The CCH is campaigning to set up an independent tenant-led arbitration body to liaise and arbitrate between TMOs and their local authority. If you are a TMO and you are having difficulties with your local authority, please let us know about it.
Nic Bliss
Housing Corporation Performance Standards
Are you having problems with them?
The CCH is aware of some Housing Co-ops that having been having difficulties with the Housing Corporation.
If your housing co-op is having difficulties with performance standards, please get in touch with us. It is useful for us to know what is happening across the country, and we may be able to help you resolve any problems, and negotiate with the Corporation, you can contact the CCH office.
Nic Bliss
Co-operative Bank Approach
The Co-operative Bank have approached the CCH to learn how they can aid us in establishing new housing co-ops and help existing housing co-ops to develop.
Alongside credit unions, housing co-ops are seen by Co-op Bank as an area where they can help grow both the co-operative movement and the bank's own business.
Two particular proposals came from a meeting in November. First, Co-op Bank are keen to find out where they have lost accounts - or not gained them - because housing co-ops have decided that the bank's service was poor, or their charges too high, etc. CCH has arranged for Co-op Bank.
to contact a broad cross-section of housing co-ops from across the country to enable this process. If any more co-ops are willing to spend time talking to Co-op Bank, explaining where it has gone wrong, please contact the CCH office.
Secondly, the CCH has asked Co-op Bank to sponsor each regional conference - which will bring together some of their target markets and represent a "niche marketing" opportunity. We have asked for a sum which should cover the venue costs and chip in towards postage.
Andy Hansford, CCH Development and Support Worker
Regional Events Start Soon In Toon!
A Lottery-funded series of events in every English region kicks off in Newcastle in February.
Aimed at tenants, co-op members, local authority and housing association workers, politicians and policy-makers and the Housing Corporation, the conference will attract 80-100 people.
Entitled "Building from Below", its focus is on housing co-ops and social exclusion in the region. It is funded so far by the CCH, the North Eastern/Cumbrian Co-op, and Home Housing Association and supported also by Endeavour HA and Banks of the Wear.
It will feature addresses by Chairs of Housing at Gateshead and Middlesborough councils, and of the North Eastern CWS Board, plus a showcase by housing co-ops, a range of workshops by workers, a chief executive of a housing association in the region and someone from the wider co-op movement.
A similar event - backed by five Housing Associations who have already formed into a 'catalyst group' for housing co-op development - is planned in the West Midlands for April. A key target will be convincing local authorities of the benefits of co-ops, in the face of heavy pressure being put upon councils to get out of the housing business.
The end of 1999 will see plans started for the North West and South West of England versions, meanwhile an exploratory meeting with the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and Glasgow co-ops, is also booked for early February. Contacts are being assembled for a fact-finding, profile-raising visit to Northern Ireland in the New Year. Events will also be held in Wales.
Andy Hansford, Development & Support Worker
Investigating Housing Co-ops & Tenant Control with the Housing Corporation
With the Social Exclusion Unit (SEU) and Department of the Environment and Transport in the Regions (DETR) looking at ways to empower tenants and communities at the neighbourhood level, the Housing Corporation have set up an advisory panel to investigate the roles that housing co-ops and tenant controlled organisations can play in tackling social exclusion.
The CCH is playing a key role on this advisory panel and we are looking forward to the publication next Summer of the corporation's strategy.
We anticipate that the strategy will outline a framework for the development of housing co-ops and TMOs throughout the country. Research is currently being carried out for the advisory panel on 'what is out there' in terms of housing co-ops and tenant control. This will be reported upon at the end of January.
If anyone wants papers relating to the advisory panel's work, please contact us with a SAE.
Nic Bliss
All Party Political Support For Housing Co-operatives!
All political parties support housing co-operatives. This has been demonstrated by 86 MPs who have become members of the reformed All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Housing Co-ops. Chaired by Jenny Jones, MP for Wolverhampton South-West, and herself a veteran of housing and worker co-ops, the group intends to meet with representatives from the SEU and the Housing Corporation, in the New Year, to monitor their progress on housing co-ops.
The CCH continues to send members to the APPG to represent the housing co-op movement. If you wish to know if your MP is signed up to the group, please get in touch with the CCH office.
Nic Bliss
