Housing Solutions
by Camelia Muldermans
Oct 17, 2007
Positive News Issue 53

Coin Street is an early model of what can be achieved when local people take matters into their own hands.

The latest stage of the successful Coin Street development on London’s South Bank is set for completion this Autumn. With housing at the top of the political agenda, Coin Street and its Housing Co-operatives are a model for high-quality, low-cost, social housing.

The 13-acre site was bought by Coin Street Community Builders, CSCB, more than 20 years ago. This was after the Coin Street Action Group successfully lobbied against plans to turn a large part of the South Bank into an uninterrupted stretch of office buildings.

Today the area is a hive of diverse activity. CSCB, a not-for-profit social enterprise and development trust, has been responsible for developing and managing a significant part of the South Bank. The area now includes designer-made studios, exhibition spaces, cafes, bars, restaurants, parks, a riverside walk-way and now the new neighbourhood centre for both young and old. At its heart are the four Coin Street Housing Co-operatives, which are home to nearly 400 adults and their families.

Natalie Bell has lived at the Redwood Housing Co-operative in the Oxo Tower for ten years. She says: “To live in a positive community, where people pull together to make their housing safe, well maintained and where volunteering is promoted is a real privilege. It makes the Coin Street area look and feel different from other inner city housing estates.”

Each Co-operative is ‘fully mutual’ explains Christine Czechowski, Coin Street’s Director of Housing. Individual tenants are not entitled to buy their own homes but people still have a sense of ownership, as the leasehold is owned by all members of the Co-operative. As a result, the private and public spaces are well-maintained.
The selection of new tenants, who initially get a five year lease, is the responsibility of the Co-operative. Anyone who wants to join has to complete a training programme. “It has been a great experience,” says Natalie. “Especially for my children who have embraced South Bank life and all it offers them.”

Contact: Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre, 108 Stamford Street, London,
SE1 9NT. Tel: +44 (0)20 7620 0544 Email: r.burton@coin-street.org
Website: www.coinstreet.org

This article can be found at:

http://www.positivenews.org.uk/artman/publish/article_1362.shtml

Sounds like something out of a Orson Welles novel, like 1984
I'm sure there are benefits to some, but if you have to complete some sort of "training" I must wonder how much freedom you have to give up to "conform" to everyone else's way of living.
We have "deed restricted" communities here too, where you have to get permission from the "association" on what color you want to paint your house, they control almost every aspect of what you can or can not do in and out of your home. Although the concept is to keep the community looking good, and retaining home values, it also limits greatly your lifestyle.