04/04/12….Co-operative housing scheme proposal for Thame

THAME Town Councillors are to investigate the feasibility of a Co-operative Housing Scheme to provide some of the homes scheduled to be built in Thame in the near future.

The proposer of the idea, Cllr Mary Stiles, said at last night’s Council meeting that she felt such a scheme “…would be one way of providing exactly the sort of homes needed by local people and would be a way of celebrating 2012 as the International Year of Co-operatives.”

The idea is in line with Mutual Home Ownership, shared equity type housing co-operatives, a new form of tenure that aims to increase the supply of affordable housing which remains permanently affordable and does not move out into the open market.

Basically, land is made available, possibly by a local authority, as a sustainable community held asset, for the MHO Society, at no cost to the mutual home owners who will live in the housing built on the land.

In some models, Co-op members pay an income-related monthly fee for the mortgage, management, maintenance, cleaning etc and when they can pay more, they are expected to do so. Their deposit and contributions to mortgage repayments finances their shares in the Co-op. (See LINK