I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision that occupiers of dwellings owned by certain forms of co-operatives shall occupy those dwellings by virtue of their membership of the co-operative and not as tenants or under any other type of property interest; to make provision for co-operative tenure and for the rights and obligations of the co-operative and its members; and for connected purposes.
It is my privilege and my pleasure to introduce the Bill. I have always had co-operative values. They are in my bones. It is not far from the mark to say that I was born in the Co-op. It certainly fed, clothed and provided essential goods to me in my early years, and I have taken those values with me throughout my life. For six years, I served as a director of the Co-operative Development Society, supporting community housing projects and co-operatives across the country. Co-operative housing is more than just an idea. Despite the significant barriers they face, there are hundreds of co-operative housing projects across the country, and the number is growing.
Just last week, I was lucky enough to visit Coin Street, just over the river in Waterloo. Forty years ago, the Coin Street Community Builders came together to fight against the rapid development of unaffordable commercial housing in London, which was leading to the total collapse of the community around them; shops, schools and community spaces were all closing. They fought hard to buy the land and build a new housing co-operative on the banks of the Thames. Today, there are four housing co-operatives on Coin Street, all managed by their residents, many of whom have lived there for decades. These are more than just homes. For the people who live there, they are routes to training, education, decision-making and genuine power. This is housing done differently.
For too many people, housing is something they have little control over. Working people have faced a housing sector that is broken, and have little opportunity to change that. For too long, when it comes to housing, power has felt very distant from communities, but for co-operative housing projects, power has always sat directly with residents. When decisions are made, residents are in the driving seat. They have an active stake and say in the places they call home. The power of that should not be underestimated. Crucially, co-operative housing projects provide an alternative to the spiralling rents and mortgage costs that too many Members will be familiar with, and which have plagued the housing sector for decades.
I want to place on record my thanks to Lucy Grove and Finn Byrne from the Coin Street team, and to Tom, a Coin Street resident, for all the work that they do to promote co-operative housing and its potential, and for showing me around last week. I pay tribute to David Rodgers, the long standing chief executive officer of CDS Housing, and his successor Linda Wallace, and to my great friend Laura Blake for all the work she did alongside me to promote co-operative housing.