Take a walk out of Bradford, along Manningham Lane, past
Connaught House and the two sleepy lions. Just after the takeaway
with the “Police line do not cross - contains addictive burgers”
tape in the window, there is an unadopted setted street leading
downhill. Halfway down, opposite a thriving school, there’s a
house full of people who have an unorthodox relationship with
their landlord - they can see him or her in the mirror. In fact, in
most of the ways that matter, these skint young types own their
own house - after a one-off payment of £1 and a rent of £45/week
including bills. This house is a housing co-operative.
Staggeringly, worldwide the co-operative
movement has about a billion members, three
times as many people as own shares. Obviously it
can work very well in a variety of countries and
situations.
Forming or joining a housing co-op is an excellent way to take
control of your own housing without being answerable to a dodgy
landlord/lady. You can literally DIY without asking - paint your
room, put some shelves up, re-plumb the kitchen. With the
agreement of your fellow members you can tackle large projects
like installing solar hot water, or wood burning central heating,
or carving a large statue of Ronaldo in the garden. Your usual
landlord/lady probably ain’t gonna let you do that. Rent is cheap
and set by the members, and you can plant fruit bushes in the
front garden and apples in the back, and make jam and pie.
The most frequent question you are likely to be asked if you
live in such a place, is “what’s the catch?” followed by “yeah,
but there must be a catch”. There is no catch. Of course there
are all the stresses of living with others, but no different to any
shared house. There is a certain amount of work that needs to
be shared out - keeping on top of the financial tasks, sharing out
maintenance, going to meetings of the co-operative network - can
be fun actually, honest - attending house meetings. All this can
give a lot of satisfaction - at least some of the time.
There are two housing co-ops operating in Bradford, Branches and
the Hive. Branches are in the process of buying a house, while
the Hive has owned a house for well over a decade. Both these
housing co-ops are members of Radical Routes - an association of
radical co-ops - which means that members should be committed
to radical social change, and shouldn’t keep pigs in the back
garden to sell for bacon. Eating ham in your own room is fine
in the Hive, in Branches you get brutally lynched by the vegan
police. There are lots of UK housing co-ops that impose no (or
different) restrictions on their members - why not set up a meaty
nudist co-op in Bradford?
You need a deposit, members, some rules, some meat and a
financial plan, but no clothes. Then you can get a mortgage and
buy a house. The mortgage is paid by income from the rents.
There are other types of housing co-op that let the members buy
or sell their share at market value or at a fixed rate, for those
who fancy that and have the available cash. This can help with
the expectation some folk have that your house should be getting
more expensive and making money for you while you sit on your
arse and do nowt.
Below are some resources to help you crawl out of the situation
you may be in, where you’re paying a large rent to fund someone
else’s skiing holiday.
Sam Lawrence
- a network of radical co-ops with good
info on setting up a co-op.
- practical advice for squatters and
homeless people, including a legal section 6 notice to print.
operative/75569787279 - Branches Housing Co-op
The Hive Housing Co-op: 16 Spring Gardens, Manningham,
BD1 3EJ.
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