Cooperative dividend

The cooperative and mutual housing sector is flourishing. Above average resident satisfaction and sound management are at the heart of its success, according to the independent Commission on Cooperative and Mutual Housing, which has just published a report Bringing Democracy Home calling for expansion of the sector.

The report is timely. The call for more John Lewis-style partnerships and the welcoming of other mutual options in the public sector has come from Labour and the Conservatives. While Labour stresses the role of state funding in grassroots approaches to the NHS and the police, for example, ‘Red Tory’ Conservatives have a vision of a ‘big society’ with renewed civic engagement at the local level.

Our report concludes that housing would be the ideal policy arena in which co-operative and mutual approaches could be pioneered, not only to bring us in line with European countries which have far more developed mutual housing sectors – up to 20 times larger than the UK – but also to improve the quality, efficiency and accountability of housing delivery.