So it was interesting to read about how the four market renewal pathfinders are testing their pilot projects (‘Growing the big society’, Inside Housing, 20 August). Our recent ‘thinkpiece’ published by Compass - the progressive pressure group - summarising our research on mutuality in housing and the big society also suggests potential ways forward, which are touched upon by the pilots.
As your article rightly points out, social landlords cannot take a one-size-fits-all approach supporting tenants in their big society aspirations since this discounts communities setting their own priorities. However, there are already models - the community gateway (in Preston, for example) and the community mutual (Liverpool Mutual Homes being the most recent example) - which enable tenants and communities to select the most appropriate devolution vehicles, whether it be a tenant management organisation, a co-operative or a looser involvement forum. Tenants then become involved at their own pace and at the desired level.
This might be a good way to start building the big society from the bottom up, through active and dedicated social landlords taking the lead in their own backyards.
The media often uses the big society as a euphemism for volunteering. But little attention has been paid to the role of mutualism, also highlighted in the prime minister’s launch of the initiative, which has the power within housing to transform neighbourhoods and the lives of otherwise permanently disadvantaged households. Mutuality offers an achievable way for social landlords to contribute towards a more devolved and democratic ‘local state’ that is responsive to changing community needs. There is significant potential for asset transfer too that could aid social mobility.
Long-term political support from all sides can be built if the big society comes to be associated with an extension of mutualism, localism and widened asset-ownership combined. These provide people with a real say and real resources to create more prosperous futures.
Dr Chris Handy, chair, Matrix Strategy Group
Kevin Gulliver, director, Human City Institute
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