2012 National Housing Cooperatives Conference
A unique moment of opportunity
Mervyn Wilson
Co-operative College UK

“These economic upheavals burst a period of protracted “capitalist triumphalism” and began to allow across the political horizon of feasible change a far wider range of possibilities than the established economic and political consensus had allowed us to previously entertain”

“ The credit crunch and fiscal crisis has freed our political imagination from the idea that this is the only game in town”

“ The world has looked into an abyss...the market fundamentalism will inevitably be the starting point for a new world order and a fundamentally renewed morality”

The co-operative ideal is as old as human society. It is the idea of conflict and competition as a principle of economic progress that is new. The development of the ideal of Co-operation in the nineteenth century can best be understood as an attempt to make explicit a principle which is inherent in the constitution of society but which had been forgotten in the turmoil and disintegration of rapid economic change.
AM Carr-Saunders, P Sargant Florence and Robert Peers, 1938

Internatio nal Cooperative
AllianceI mpactI-
(ICA)
According to the UN, if you include members, employees and their dependents over half the worlds population depends on co-operative enterprises of one type or another to improve their basic living standards

Over a billion members
The top 300 turnover exceeds $1.6 trillion
Over 100 million jobs
Financial co-ops serve over
857 million people – 13% of the world population

International Co-operative Alliance (ICA
In New Zealand 40% of the adult population are members of cooperatives or mutuals. 1 in 3 families are members of co-operatives in
Japan , whilst India has 239 million co-operative members. 6.78 million people – 27% of the population are co-operative members in Malaysia and over 50% of the population (1.6 million) are members in Singapore .

• Rebranding
• Restoring membership benefits
• Rebuilding membership
• Rebuilding confidence in co-operation
• Growth through acquisition
• Putting values into practice

• Policy reviews as well as legislative updates
• Co-operatives recognised as significant actors in development
• Recognition of the role of co-operatives and mutuals in public sector reform
• Recognition that co-operatives and mutuals are important components of a 21 st century economy

• Environmental cooperatives
• Health co-operatives
• Tenant co-operatives
• Rural community cooperatives
• Co-operative pubs
• Co-operative schools

THE objects and plans of this
Society are to form arrangements for the pecuniary benefit, and the improvement of the social and domestic condition of its members , by raising a sufficient amount of capital in shares of one pound each, to bring into operation the following plans and arrangements

The building, purchasing or erecting a number of houses, in which those members desiring to assist each other in improving their domestic and social condition may reside.
Housing

• 13,000 households
• 76% yes vote for the new mutual – over
9,000 voting
• Membership champions building the membership

“Many members of co-operative and mutual housing organisations would not want to live in any other type of housing, not least because of the mutually supportive communities they have established, where they know that they have friends and neighbours who will look out for them – a tapestry of human interaction that characterises the sector”.
The independent Commission for Co-operative and Mutual Housing UK 2011

“ordinary people in cooperative and mutual housing organisations who want to do things to tackle climate change, volunteer as school governors, or participate in various other community activities”.
The independent Commission for Cooperative and Mutual Housing UK
2011

“the idea of co-operative and mutual housing is “Britain’s best kept secret”. Little information is available for communities, local authorities, housing associations or others who are interested in exploring co-operative and mutual housing options, and models are hard to develop in an environment not established to support them”

Certified timber and other forest products campaign
ICA General Assembly resolution called on housing co-operatives and the whole of the co-operative family in the ICA to only use timber and other products that are certified as sourced from sustainably managed forest resources

The Governance Project for sound co-op housing governance
The good governance project will help to ensure that member co-operatives have the proper democratic governance tools to make that goal of democratic participation by all members real and effective.

Publication of Country Housing Co-operative profiles
ICA Housing has worked with member apex organizations to produce profiles of co-op housing systems in each country, including statistics, history, legislation and administrative arrangements under which housing cooperatives operate. There are currently 18 country profiles published and several others in draft form

Co-op housing development conference – South
Africa
The ICA Housing Committee will respond to interest in housing cooperatives in the emerging economies and the developing world by holding an ICA Housing conference designed for and accessible to emerging co-operatives and their developing co-operative housing systems
.

The Global ICA Housing banner
Housing cooperatives around the world have many buildings at the heart of the communities they serve.
ICA Housing are encouraging member co-ops to hang banners proclaiming the key IYC 2012 message on their co-op housing buildings.
Two styles – one for tall buildings and one for long terraced housing

That as soon as practicable, this society shall proceed to arrange the powers of production, distribution, education, and government, or in other words to establish a self-supporting home-colony of united interests, or assist other societies in establishing such colonies.
- To change the world!

“Co-operatives provide vital health, housing and banking services; they promote education and gender equality; they protect the environment and workers rights.
Through these and a range of other activities they help people better their lives and those of their communities.”

But where does all this cooperative activity lead? What is the goal for which co-operators are aiming? Is it merely a more efficient economic system? It is that; but it is something more. It is a more satisfying economic system because it is more moral and because it solves most of the present-day problems of industry and commerce ?
•
Co-operation
– Hall and Watkins 1937

Further information mervyn@co-op.ac.uk
www.co-op.ac.uk