National Commission calls for housing co-operatives in every community

The Commission for Co-operative and Mutual Housing has called for each town, village and community in England to have access to co-operative or mutual housing as part of the mainstream housing system by 2030.

The call comes as the Commission launch their report, Bringing Democracy Home. The report is the culmination of 18 months of work researching the English co-operative and mutual housing sector.

The research found that co-operative and mutual housing has consistently produced a range of benefits including above average resident satisfaction, lower arrears, better community spirit and fewer vacancies and faster re-lets.

Speaking at the launch of the report, Adrian Coles, Chair of the Commission and BSA Director-General, said

“There are many strong, vibrant housing co-operative sectors in other countries around the world. The UK has a strong and growing general co-operative sector, so why not develop further co-operative housing here in the UK?

“This would enable residents, through becoming members, to have the right to control or participate in governance and to exercise control over their housing environment, neighbourhood and community.”

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MPs support remutualisation

Nearly 100 MPs signed a Parliamentary motion regretting demutualisation and urging the Government to remutualise Northern Rock as part of the restructuring of the banking sector. 

Early Day Motion 2233, Mutualisation and the Banking Sector, was laid by Malcolm Wicks, Labour MP for Croydon North, and gained 97 signatures before the end of last session of Parliament.  No more signatures can be added to this EDM as the Parliamentary session within which it was introduced is now closed.  However, a new EDM, Remutualisation of Banks, was laid on 26 November and can be signed by MPs within the current session.

In September, a report was published for the BSA by the Centre for Mutual and Employee-owned Business at the University of Oxford, revealing a strong case for converting failed banks into mutual organisations.  The report can be viewed here

BSA Responds to Mortgage Regulation Consultation

Last week, HM Treasury issued a consultation paper on extending the scope of mortgage regulation within the FSA. 

Commenting on the consultation, Paul Broadhead, Head of Mortgage Policy at the Building Societies Association, said:

Second Charge Lending

“We support the regulation of second charge lending by the FSA to ensure that all customers are treated consistently. The challenge for the FSA and the OFT will be to ensure a smooth transition period for both customers and lenders.

Buy to Let

“If the FSA wishes to regulate mortgages for small landlords as set out in the Mortgage Market Review discussion paper, it will face a difficult challenge in differentiating between mortgages for different types of buy to let investors.  

Selling on of Mortgages

“We welcome the proposal for greater protection for consumers when mortgages are sold on. A more robust approach to ensuring that buyers of mortgages continue to treat borrowers fairly is to be welcomed.”

Society news

Ipswich Building Society has scooped the top honours in the 2009 Anglian Business Awards by winning both the ‘Business of the Year’ award and the ‘Medium-Large Business of the Year’ award.   The Society fought off competition from 15 individual category winners to claim the coveted  prize.