Housing Co-Operatives

Which Model is right for you ?

A housing co-op can take many forms, one being a Friendly Society. Friendly Societies are set up to benefit the members and may or may not have social aims and objectives. A contemporary model of this type of community can be found at Highbury Farm in the Wye Valley. In this housing co-op, some of the members live in dwellings other than traditional houses. This can be best understood by visitng the Stepping Stones Housing Co-Operative web site. Don't forget to come back here afterwards. Stepping Stones is a member of the Radical Routes Network of co-operative working for social change.

Radical Routes

Radical Routes is a network of radical co-ops whose members are committed to working for positive social change. The network is made up of mainly housing co-ops of various sizes (none with more than 16 members), a few workers co-ops and a couple of social centres. Radical Routes provide support, training and access to finance in the form of loans. Again, the best way to find out what they do and how they do it is to point you to Radical Routes web site. Please do visit us again ...

Oxford Community Land Trust

Oxford Community Land Trust is a local not for profit organisation, registered as an Industrial and Provident Society with it's regulator the Financial Services Authority. It is specifically designed to hold land on behalf of local people and has an asset lock to stop any privatisation of its land assets. OCLT are also enquiring into Mutual Home Ownership (MHO) to attract ethical investors. OCLT is partnering with CDS to develop a site in Cumnor which will provide a mix of private homes and social housing. The best way to find out more about Oxford Community Land Trust is to visit the OCLT web site. Please remember to come back here afterwards.

Oxford Co-Housing Group

The Oxford Co-Housing Group is a group of local people who are interested in living in a co-housing community. Co-housing communities usually have some buildings, services and/or facilities that are shared by members of the community. There are many advantages to this sort of arrangement, including but not limited to, lower household bills. Living in this type of community can be of great benefit for a disabled person and in fact, for anyone who wants to live independently, but wants to avoid becoming isolated in their home. Unfortunately, their web site appears to be not working at the time of writing. Please let me know if this changes.

Soma Housing Co-Op

This housing co-op is still under development. We have been looking at various legal forms the housing co-op could take and trying to work out which Model Rules will be the best for our group. To find out more about this project follow this link to Soma Housing Co-Op.