CCH Bulletin April 1999
The Newsletter for the Co-operative Housing Movement in England and Wales.
In this issue:
- Editorial
- Radical Thinking in Housing
- CCH AGM
- Making a Difference Together
- A Breakthrough for Tenant Control at the Housing Corporation?
- Is Tenant Empowerment Going to Happen?
- Warmth in Glasgow
- Midlands Regional Conference
- Homes For Change: Phase Two
- "X" Has A Dream
- 50 up for Catalyst
- Co-operators' Diary
- Eric Jackson - 20 Years of Co-operative Housing!
Some articles included in the print version of the April CCH Bulletin were omitted in the online version because they had already appeared on the News page and can still be found there.
Stop PRESS: Tenants Taking Control
The policy consultation document is available to interested parties from the CCH office. A public launch will be made at the CCH conference in September.
[Update 26 Nov 1999: this document is now available online]
Editorial
by Andy Moran, Mushroom Housing Co-op
Whilst reading a document about Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) and their rural policies, I noted some facts and figures that made me think "Solution: Housing Co-ops!"
"There is a shortage of affordable homes to rent or buy. Research...estimated a need for 80,000 additional affordable homes in rural areas between 1990 and 1995 but only 16,000 units have been provided since 1990."
"Further research...found that 40% of new households in many rural districts were unable to afford to enter the owner-occupied sector but there is also less social housing in the countryside than in towns."
The document goes on to state that there is a growing homelessness problem and an outwards flow of young people from rural areas, something that could potentially destroy whole communities.
Regional Co-operative Councils (RCCs) can (and do) make the case for housing co-ops to RDAs. To do this to its fullest potential, each RCC needs to have housing co-op people involved in them, who are in turn, in two-way communication with the CCH.
If you are a housing co-op member involved with your RCC, please ensure that the CCH is informed about developments and issues in your area.
Is your housing co-op represented on your RCC? If not, perhaps you could do this and promote housing co-ops as a possible solution to some of your communities housing problems.
AJM
Radical Thinking in Housing
Hilary Armstrong Addresses the Housing Co-operative Movement
Speaking at the House of Commons launch of the Co-op Party's latest pamphlet, "New Mutualism - The Third Estate", Hilary Armstrong MP, agreed that "radical thinking is needed in social housing".
Although stopping short of a clear commitment to housing co-operatives, Hilary recognised the role that housing co-operatives play and the potential contribution that the wider co-operative movement could make towards combating social exclusion.
As an indication of Hilary Armstrong's growing support for the housing co-op movement, she has agreed to speak at the CCH's annual conference at the International Co-op College at Loughborough, in September.
David Rodgers, the Director of CDS Co-operatives and author of the new pamphlet, outlined the human instinct for co-operation and the need for a specific legal definition of "co-operative tenure".
Nic Bliss
CCH AGM
The CCH Annual General Meeting took place on Saturday 20 February at Argyle Street Housing Co-op, Cambridge.
Business included the CCH accounts and reports from the Secretary and Treasurer.
The meeting was attended by members from across the country and nominations were accepted and agreed for regional representatives to our General Council.
Margaret Jones and Robin Francis were re-elected as Secretary and Treasurer, respectively.
The Council is open to suggestions for methods by which reps can be nominated in the future and how regional reps can be contacted by members in their area.
Viv Harrison
Making a Difference Together
"For those who benefit from our efforts, however few they may be, however small the change may seem at the time, the empowerment is for ever." Thus spoke Mike J Carr, Chair of Housing at Middlesbrough Council, encapsulating the importance of empowering tenants through housing co-operatives at the CCH's first regional housing co-operative conference in Newcastle on Saturday 6 February.
The conference, bringing together nearly 100 regional representatives from housing co-operatives, housing associations, local authorities and the wider co-operative movement, was also addressed by Paul Tinnion, Chair of Housing at Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council, and Terry Morton, Chair of the North-Eastern and Cumbrian Co-op, who highlighted the importance of the co-operative contribution.
Some excellent cross-sector ideas came from the conference, including representatives from housing and retail co-ops carrying out exchange visits, and publicity regarding the availability of the CWS's Community Dividend Fund to help housing co-ops meet their training needs.
It was also agreed by the conference that the regional co-op body, North East Co-op Links, should be sustained and that a separate group should be set up specifically to look at development opportunities for housing co-ops in the region.
Nic Bliss
A Breakthrough for Tenant Control at the Housing Corporation?
Recently published research by the Office for Public Management (OPM) into models of resident controlled housing, is beginning to lead to significant developments from the Housing Corporation's advisory panel into resident control. Key recommendations in the report include:
The Corporation should ^quot;continue to recognise co-ops as one aspect of a spectrum of resident involvement" and should "set up a mechanism for an ongoing dialogue with representatives from across the spectrum of resident controlled housing".
The Corporation should encourage other Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) to "provide support to co-ops" and to "work with the co-operative movement to draw up a framework within which existing mainstream RSLs can provide support to co-ops, both for development and management services."
Local authorities should "consider the contribution that resident controlled housing in all its forms can make to building sustainable communities, especially within a larger framework for regeneration, and take this into account when considering which schemes they will support". They should "take into account an RSL's track record in resident involvement and control when choosing preferred partners."
The DETR should "review the way in which resident control can be developed within the framework of best value, neighbourhood management and policies to prevent social exclusion, and what government actions are needed to promote this".
The CCH, in welcoming the publication of this report and its even-handed approach to the housing co-operative model, sees the research as being the building block for a ground-breaking new resident controlled strategy that will include housing co-operatives as an option for tenants throughout the country.
Last year, Baroness Brenda Dean, Chair of the Housing Corporation, in welcoming the publication of the UK Co-operative Council's 'Realising the Potential' publication, which outlined the case for co-operative housing, set in motion a review of the Corporation's housing co-operative strategy that led to the Corporation assembling a resident control advisory group and the commissioning of the OPM research.
Whilst publication of the research has led to a unified sense of purpose in the advisory group, there remains a significant amount of work to be done to turn the OPM conclusions into a full strategy which is due to be published later in the year, for consultation.
Nic Bliss
Is Tenant Empowerment Going to Happen?
Tenant Participation Compacts, Best Value, Tenant Empowerment Grants, Right to Manage review, Making Consumers Count - has there ever been a time when there is so much official literature coming out about tenant involvement and empowerment?
At ATIC - the Association for Tenant Involvement and Control - we welcome this but we want to make sure that the reality will match the rhetoric.
Too often we have seen organisations using the language of empowerment but delivering something quite different. Our agenda is to set real tests for tenant empowerment, promote these and measure the performance of social landlords against them.
ATIC was established in 1997 with the aim of bringing together tenant organisations, advisers and individuals whose concern is making policy work.
We have had some successes including the return of secondment of council staff as an option for tenant management and the essential spadework on new options studies.
CCH is affiliated to ATIC and vice versa - we see co-operative housing as one of the most successful ways of empowering local communities.
ATIC is holding its second Policy conference and AGM in Wolverhampton on 23 April 1999 and has recently distributed 22,000 copies of its newsletter.
If you would like to know more about this conference or about ATIC and how to join, then telephone our freephone number: 0800 056 3886.
Ed Isaacs - Hon. Secretary, ATIC
Warmth in Glasgow
For two days in early February, three CCH General Council members visited co-ops in Glasgow as guests of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA). Joined on the second day by Erskine Holmes of the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations (NIFHA), they were all delighted by the warm hospitality offered them.
At the co-ops we visited in Drumchapel, Castlemilk and West Whitlawburn, I was struck by two things. One was a strong similarity to Tenant Management Co-ops in England. The second was how similar housing co-ops in Scotland are to Scottish community housing associations.
We agreed that we would try to strengthen links between the CCH and Scottish housing co-ops. To this end, the Scottish Community Ownership Housing Forum (SCOHF), CCH, SFHA and NIFHA, have called for a UK-wide conference on housing co-ops to take place in early 2000, in Glasgow.
The conference will examine the success stories and learn lessons from all four corners of the UK.
It will look at co-operation both between housing co-ops and with other parts of the international co-operative movement. It will also look at other ways of working together to advance the housing co-op movement in the UK and strengthen the services provided to co-op members.
The CCH has learned that grant rates paid to Scottish co-ops run at 90-98%, whereas in England the maximum is 54%. Housing policy across Scotland is firmly pro-co-operative.
We have seen in Scotland the beneficial effects of a pro-housing co-op policy, as well as by collectively owned and controlled provision of key services, from welfare advice to health and childcare. The effects are not just in bricks and mortar, but in community spirit; the ability to beat back crime and the poverty trap.
There may be great benefit from sharing training and consultancy advice. One major task of the CCH in 1999-2001 is to produce "best practice" guidance to its member co-ops, in co-operation with trainees and consultants. We hope to bring these together with SHARE (a Scottish equivalent to a service agency) at the UK-wide conference.
We also believe we have learnt how, what the wider movement calls "the co-operative difference", can best be applied throughout the UK. Our strengthening links with the UKCC, the CWS and the Co-op Bank, may offer "dividends" to housing co-ops in Scotland in the near future - just as they are beginning to do for English co-ops.
Andy Hansford, Development & Support Worker
Midlands Regional Conference
West Midlands Co-operative & Mutual Council
What role housing co-ops in your future strategies?
Birmingham & Midland Institute,
Margaret Street, Birmingham,
Friday 21st May 1999.
A major regional conference to bring together tenants, local authority councillors & officers, housing association representatives & co-operators to discuss how housing co-ops can complement existing housing strategies.
Speakers include:
- Lord Graham, Chairman, UK Co-operative Council
- Graham Farrant, Director of Housing, Birmingham City Council
- Chris Handy, Chief Executive, Accord HA
- Jacqui Smith, MP for Redditch.
To book your free place (places will be limited, so please book early), please ring the CCH on 0121 685 1019.
This conference is sponsored by the Housing Corporation, Midland Co-operative Society, West Midlands Co-operative Society, Accord, Focus, Mercian & Moseley & District Housing Associations, Balsall Heath, Burrowes Street, New Decade, Paddock & 20/20 Housing Co-operatives, Birmingham Co-operative Housing Services, Redditch Co-operative Homes.
Homes For Change: Phase Two
The 25-home scheme finishes off the block started by the award winning first
phase. The scheme will also include another 4,000 square feet of workspace on
the street frontage.
Dominated by a large curved wall of Western Red Cedar boarding, it will make one of the most prominent corners in Hulme, Manchester, proving that if you want it done well, you do it co-operatively.
Charlie Baker, Homes For Change
"X" Has A Dream
"X" lives in a housing co-op, works for a worker co-op, saves with a credit union, buys food from a co-operative food buying group, plays "footie" at a community centre that's a service co-op, and gets his/her garden maintained by a worker co-op.
Yeah, I know it's a dream but that's where the reality of the future has to start!
Nathan Brown, Hamwic Housing Co-op
50 up for Catalyst
Cornwall based worker co-op Catalyst has announced that it has registered 50 housing co-ops.
You can contact Catalyst at:
PO Box 5,
Lostwithiel,
Cornwall,
PL22 0YT
or visit their Website
Andy Moran
Co-operators' Diary
ICOF and ICOM have a joint conference on 2-4 July at the Co-operative College, Stamford Hall, Loughborough.
Key speakers include Michael Wills MP, Under Secretary of State for Small Firms and Industry, Ed Mayo, Director of the New Economics Foundation, Peter Hunt, General Secretary of the Co-op Party, Stephanie Sturrock, Director of Shared Interest, Iain Macdonal, CWS and Peter Couchman Oxford Swindon & Gloucester Co-operative Society.
For more information contact Christine Boxall or Hannah Durrant at ICOM 0113 2461737.
Two courses for young co-operators (18-25 years old are current parameters) are taking place at Co-op College, Stanford Hall from 12th - 16th July and 6th - 10th September this year. The courses are designed to bring together people with a wide range of involvement in co-ops. Typically they include management trainees and other employees of the large consumer societies, consumer co-op society members, worker co-op employees and members of co-op youth organisations such as Woodcraft Folk.
Details of the courses and bursary scheme that can part-fund attendance are available from Sue Haines at Co-op College on 01509 857219.
Sussex Co-operative Network is holding a conference at Hove Town Hall on Friday 7 May. Confirmed speakers include:
- David Lepper (Brighton Co-op/Labour MP)
- Sue John (Chair Sussex Co-op Party Vice Chair Brighton & Hove Council Social Services Committee)
- Malcolm Corbett (Chair ICOM, Poptel ISP co-op).
Contact Kate Whittle, Social Enterprise Research & Training, 8A Florence Road, Brighton BN1 6DJ. Tel: (01273) 556843. Email: kt@gn.apc.org.
The next CCH meeting will be on Saturday 19 June at Rainbow Housing Co-op, Milton Keynes.
Andy Moran
Eric Jackson - 20 Years of Co-operative Housing!
At a recent ceremony at Co-operative Development Services (CDS) Housing in Liverpool, fellow co-operators presented Eric Jackson with tokens of appreciation for his twenty odd years as a champion and defender of co-ops.
Eric had decided to step down from an active role in the movement due to ill health.
This event was attended by many who had worked with Eric over the years. Co-op members, CDS staff and board members, solicitors, lawyers and the Housing Corporation joined together to honour his achievements.
As both a committee member and co-op officer he has been a leading light in the co-op movement in Liverpool. He also represented Merseyside Co-ops to the CCH and was on the National Housing Federation's Co-ops Standing Group.
The co-op movement, particularly in Merseyside, owes a debt of gratitude to Eric. His enthusiasm, willingness and commitment to co-ops, especially when they were in difficulties, gained him many friends. We all thank him and will miss his energy and commitment.
Hughie Tierney, Chair of the Merseyside Federation of Housing Co-ops said, "We all wish Eric well in the future but he can rest assured he has left a lasting legacy for others to build on."
Nic Bliss
