Power to the people

Greater resident control and democracy in social housing are intrinsic to realising the coalition government’s ‘big society’ for ethical and hard-nosed business reasons.

Direct resident involvement raises performance quality and satisfaction levels. It also provides a psychological ‘lift’ to residents, enhancing self-esteem, producing higher levels of employment than elsewhere in social housing, and enabling wider community contributions. Despite this, direct resident control is under-developed and present in just 0.6 per cent of UK housing compared to 10 per cent EU norms.

Research by the Human City Institute for the Commission on Cooperative and Mutual Housing reveals 836 organisations overseeing 169,000 homes; more extensive than previously recognised. These are mostly small. Yet seven large community gateways or mutuals manage one third of this housing, indicating that resident control is possible in organisations of all sizes.

While resident-controlled organisations can be found across the UK, half are in the capital. And only 8 per cent of tenant management organisations are linked to housing associations - Walsall’s WATMOS accounts for most and is an established model if associations are serious about extending resident control nationally and catching-up with local authorities.

A concerted effort is now required to democratise social housing as a step-change to improving service quality, regenerating neighbourhoods through social capitalisation, and acting as a bulwark against cuts. The local standards approach and adoption of community gateway principles would be practical next steps to realising the coalition’s ‘big’ ambition.

Dr Chris Handy is executive commissioner at the Commission on Cooperative and Mutual Housing