Quarterly Report
February 2000
Policy
The CCH continues to play a leading role in the emerging community empowerment agenda. Publication of the CCH's policy document 'Tenants Taking Control' (available from the CCH office price £5), kindled wide interest. This interest has been further stimulated by the publication of the Housing Corporation's 'Options for Community Housing' & 'Community Training & Enabling Grant' papers, which the CCH has responded to. The CCH has also contributed, in partnership with the UK Co-operative Council, to the Institute for Public Policy Research's consultation paper on the future of public sector housing.
Promotion
The CCH, in partnership with the Scottish Community Ownership Housing Forum will be holding an international conference on housing co-ops in Glasgow on 23rd to 25th March 2000. The conference will bring together notable speakers from around the world, as well as the International Co-operative Alliance Housing Committee and the UK Co-operative Council. Following on from very useful CCH study trips to Scotland and Northern Ireland, the conference aims to unite housing practitioners from all 4 UK countries around a co-operative housing agenda.
The CCH continues its regional promotion strategy. Although the CCH's plans to hold a conference in the North-West did not come to fruition, planning has begun on holding conferences in Bristol and the East Midlands during 2000 and the programme will be completed by a conference in London in partnership with the London Federation of Housing Co-ops early in 2001.
Research
Service provision to housing co-ops
The CCH's research into how organisations provide services to housing co-ops is progressing well. Initial survey data has now been received from all service providers and detailed interviews are currently progressing. It is projected that the project will be completed by Autumn 2000.
Database of policies & procedures
Initial draft policies have now been compiled and will be published on the CCH's website for ongoing consultation within the next month.
Code of Governance
Responding to the publication of the National Housing Federation's code of governance for housing associations, the CCH has now produced a draft code of governance specifically for housing co-ops. This will shortly go out for consultation with the housing co-op movement.
Tenant Control & Social Exclusion
The scope of this project has created significant problems for the CCH. Initially designed as a comparative study between tenant participation initiatives and tenant controlled organisations, the project now aims to investigate how tenant control contributes to tackling social exclusion. It is still planned that the research will be concluded by Feb 2001.
Housing co-ops and home ownership
Critical to the debate about tackling social exclusion is how tenants and home owners are united and working to a common agenda. With this in mind, and responding to requests from CCH members for models that enable leasehold homeowners to establish housing co-ops, the CCH is planning to investigate this whole area.
This ties in with the CCH's work on establishing Community Land Trusts - vehicles similar to Development Trusts, that enable community ownership of land.
Publicity
The CCH continues to play a key role in getting the message about tenant control across in various forums, ranging from attending the TPAS conference to several National Housing Federation events. The CCH jointly hosted a NHF seminar in Redditch for Housing Association staff to examine the Housing Corporation's tenant control policies.
The CCH's interactive website continues to attract significant interest. The website, along with other methods of contact, have yielded something in the region of 10 enquiries per week about housing co-ops and the CCH manages to continue to field most of these enquiries.
