As a Conservative supporter, I do believe that people should be given a choice, in their housing, with the education and the opportunity to make informed choices about the way their lives are run. Government’s perception is that it’s not cost effective. Yet, the co-op housing model will disprove this argument in the majority of times, as with direct resident involvement, money is spent wisely and not wasted. I know of times when residents have made informed decisions which have caused their rents to be increased, but for the right reasons, reasons which have improved their living standards.

The only consideration for the majority of people is a safe, clean and secure roof over the heads of their families which they can afford. As not everyone wants to own their own home, but are still happy to have involvement in the decision making and expenditure.

The costs to the general tax payer and the country make the provision of decent homes very costly. The creation of these large housing associations with no real tenant or local involvement in the decision making or running of them, Is totally wrong in my estimation.

When social housing was run by the local and county councils, residents who were the electorate, had the choice of changing the Council at the very least if they were unhappy with the service. We now have large quango’s using the public purse, and with no accountability to their tenants. They try to disprove this, by saying we have tenants who are members of our management boards, but they appear to be mostly “ Yes People “, who do not want to rock the boat, and have been invited to join, and not people who have sought an appointment with a housing provider to be active member and change the format for the better.

Government has given vast sums of money to these organisations to build new homes, rather than spreading the moneys around, they then build in area’s no one wants to live, this is money which has been borrowed, so a double cost to the country. They have also forced these business’s to borrow vast sums, and with the crash in the housing market, have left some of them in great difficulty with land they cannot afford to build on, and properties they cannot sell.

CDS Co-op Housing has come up with a new idea, this being Mutual Home Ownership, under the community land trust scheme, with people being able to purchase / rent a part of their new home. It should also be understood, that the “ Mutual Housing”, scheme has the benefit and advantage of being Sharia Law compliant, so is an option for the whole nation, and is fully inclusive to all members of the neighbour hood and all financial institutions regardless of religious belief.

Government owns large tracts of land, NHS Hospital sites, old M.o.D. land, which should be used for the purpose of providing affordable housing. The land could be leased at no cost to the scheme, as a leased property, with government retaining the asset of the land within the public domain. A Crown lease, thus with little or no actual costs to the public purse, property can be built.

Co-operatives are firstly about providing a solution to a problem, the old adage of many hands make light work , and have as much of a beneficial influence if not more, than any other. It has as many conservative as socialist principals, The Co-operative principal has been part of Industry / business for over 160 years, from employee owned co-op’s, co-operative business’s, co-operative farms. Housing Co-ops are about people, who share enough of an interest in their style of life to become involved and want to remain involved until a goal is reached.

Most members of the housing community seem to recognise that the Cooperative mode of working would bring stability to the housing market, from my own experience co-op tenants stay longer at one address that most other rented properties.

The ideas of co-operative / mutual co-ownership of social housing is part of the mainstream housing policy of, the United States, Canada, Norway, and Denmark. These homes amount to approximately 14 % of the social housing sector stock, whereas in the UK its less than 1 %.

In my years of being involved within the social housing sector, I have got to know a large number of people, who have turned their lives round, myself included, due to the positive attitude of living in co-op housing, the day to day involvement, the feel good factor, and have gone on to take courses and degrees in social housing management.