Digital Co-operative Housing in Wales

Further to the One Big Housing Conference 2015 in Llandrindod Wells where the Wales Co-operative Centre exhibited and Dave Brown, our Director of Communities and Inclusion, ran a session on ‘Meeting the Skills Gap’, I’m ‘Identifying the Opportunity within a Challenge’ by demonstrating the use of digital inclusion within co-operative housing across Wales.

The Centre has been supporting the development of co-operative housing across Wales for three years which has grown from eight ‘pioneers’ to nearly thirty schemes. Forty-one of these social rented homes are now occupied in Cardiff, where the Home Farm Village housing co-operative members communicate through a closed Facebook site and photos are tweeted by Cadwyn HA, who helped develop the scheme. Some of the residents hadn’t used social media before so being part of the group, and with the support of other co-operative members, their participation and skills have increased which demonstrates the power of formal and informal volunteering. They now resolve issues and keep each other informed about suppliers, service providers, refuse collection and anti-social behaviour, through Facebook.

The Wales Co-operative Centre also has a strong track record in the area of digital inclusion. It is currently delivering the Digital Communities Wales project for Welsh Government. The Centre has been helping communities get online since 2005 and was the lead delivery partner of the Welsh Government’s Communities@One and Communities 2.0 projects, both funded by the European Union. The Centre has extensive experience of developing and implementing co-operative solutions to strengthen communities and promote inclusion.

Recent statistics show that 56% of social housing tenants have broadband access compared to 78% of the total population. The aim is for 100% of co-operative residents to be digitally included. One way in which this is being achieved is by tenants using social media, as a platform that brings people together.

In Merthyr Tydfil, ‘Taf Fechan’ Housing co-op has recently set up a Facebook page and website. They have free wi-fi in all flats and hope to carry out most of their training and business electronically. They also tweet - @Taffechancoop.

There are other good examples of this all over Wales. In Newport, where nineteen leasehold shared-ownership homes are currently being built, members communicate through a closed Facebook site and also have a public page. There will be opportunities in future to market available properties through social media.

In Carmarthenshire, founder members of a site that has twenty-seven ‘Intermediate Rent’ homes also have a closed and public Facebook page. Members have chosen the co-op’s logo, street names and internal finishes for the homes through the Facebook page. Training presentations are uploaded to the Facebook site for members that can’t make any of the regular meetings. An emerging group in Powys uses Facebook as they start to engender interest.

Further North, in Wrexham, a small self-build housing co-op has both a website and Facebook site. They have gone public online with the website and have already accumulated over 300 likes on Facebook. They are getting some great messages of support from local community and from those already working on sustainable projects.

There is a large Community Land Trust in Pembrokeshire, which is establishing a website that links into the local community council’s website. In Swansea there is a small established housing co-op that also has a Facebook presence.

All of this not only shows the power of social media, but it provides a great opportunity to help people do more online as they develop housing co-operatives – a win-win as far as we’re concerned. The development and interconnection of all these co-ops across would not be possible without social media and the support of the Wales Co-operative Centre and the Confederation of Co-operative Housing.


Dave Palmer, Wales Co-operative Centre

Wales Co-op gets involved with CHC's fesTYval...

During the school holidays, we have time to consider where CHC’s recent FesTYval fitted into the summer programme of events. It began by cleaning up the unused Cyfartha School in Merthyr...

Yes, actually cleaning the school!

Delegates were welcomed by singing in the first morning session, plants could be bought all day, and popsicles were sold in the afternoon as the sun shone. The Wales Co-op shared a stand with Cadwyn Housing Association and all the visitors mingled.

Home Farm Housing Co-op featured in our exhibition as a pioneer pilot co-operative housing scheme in our support project. This support project is funded by Welsh Government and The Nationwide Foundation – the latter from their alternative housing funding programme. They are working with the international Building and Social Housing Federation as part of ‘Scaling up Community-led Housing’ which they describe here.

We are part of the Alliance across the UK, so the FesTYval in Merthyr was part of this regeneration. Ideas and messages from what used to be Wales' largest town, when coal and iron were exported all over the world, are again being used to promote Co-operative Housing across Wales and beyond.

I can’t wait for other CHC events in the Autumn, and trying to guess what and where FesTYval will be next year!


David Palmer
Wales Co-Operative Centre 

Co-operation housing helps build co-operative communities

At the Wales Co-operative Centre, we are running a Welsh Government funded project to utilise co-operative housing approaches to help meet the demand for affordable housing. We know that co-operative approaches lead to a sense of ownership and empowerment which lead in turn to improvements in quality. These principles are extremely important drivers for those social landlords currently engaging in developing this approach – increased tenant ownership and empowerment leads to reduced arrears, reduced void turnarounds and improved community and quality of life.

In West Wales, Grŵp Gwalia is working in partnership with Carmarthenshire County Council to develop a co-operative housing scheme near Carmarthen town centre that will see 27 new homes built.

In recent months, Gwalia has held events to engage with potential members to the Carmarthen housing co-operative. A core group has come forward comprised of people on the housing waiting list who believe they can bring something to a co-operative housing living situation. The site has also recently received planning permission.

One young family, which has been provisionally allocated a property on the Carmarthen site, told us why they've got involved:

“We are living in temporary accommodation for the homeless. It’s not ideal but it’s a roof over our heads. We had so many issues in our last property that Environmental Health said it was unsafe for us to live in. Also, there’s no security when you rent privately. Landlords can tell you to move out at any time. The housing co-operative offers you the chance to live within a close knit community, you know everybody and have the security of housing. You’re in a house and you don’t get kicked out for no reason - it’s all a plus to us.”

This development is part of a wider initiative, led by Welsh Government, where several pilot projects are being developed to explore the use of co-operative models as an additional housing option.

Amongst the other lead pilot projects are developments with Seren, Cadwyn and a Community Land Trust in West Rhyl which North Wales Housing is working with.

The benefits of developing co-operative housing approaches are many. They help to fulfil the need to provide more affordable housing. They offer a community led approach so are often more sustainable in the long term than other approaches. Co-operative housing developments are largely self policing, and their approaches are democratic and based on fairness and equality. Co-operatives tend to work together to look after their communal areas and are often able to manage the maintenance or maintenance contracts on their homes.

There are several different approaches which can be taken up when a social landlord is developing co-operative housing. Ownership can be completely devolved to the co-operative, ownership can be based on a long-term lease to the co-operative, and the social landlord can stimulate co-operative approaches to the management and upkeep of the properties.

In 2014, the Welsh Government pledged to increase the supply of affordable homes to 10,000 before May 2016. Co-operative housing has the potential to make a sustainable contribution to that target and to offer a long term and sustainable approach to housing provision, as well as to the development of local communities.

You can read more about the Grŵp Gwalia scheme here. 

David Palmer, Co-operative Housing Project Manager
Wales Co-operative Centre