Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Ownership (was: Re: the microflat as a module in affordable inner urban)

[Jock Coats (jock.coats]

Howard Landman wrote:

> > they are still perpetuating a myth that ownership is the only 
> > really desirable form of tenure and pandering to that.  It would be my 
> > contention that if the same principles were applied to building 
> > not-for-profit housing for community ownership renting would not be 
> > 'dead money'
> >    
>                 79 YOUR OWN HOME
>         
>         ... according to THE FAMILY (75), each individual household
>         should be part of a larger family group household.  Whether this
>         is so, or not, each individual household, must also have a
>         territory of its own which it controls completely - HOUSE FOR A
>         SMALL FAMILY (76), HOUSE FOR A COUPLE (77), HOUSE FOR ONE PERSON
>         (78); this pattern, which simply sets down the need for such a
>         territory, helps especially to form higher density house clusters
>         like ROW HOUSES (38), HOUSING HILL (39), which often do not have
>         well-defined individual territories for the separate households.
>
>                                 * * *
>         
>         * People cannot be genuinely comfortable and healthy in a house
>         * which is not theirs.  All forms of rental - whether from private
>         * landlords or public housing agencies - work against the natural
>         * processes which allow people to form stable, self-healing
>         * communities.
>  
Hmmm...I can follow the logic, but tell that to the Germans or the 
Swedes who not only seem to be happy renting largely (especially in fact 
until families are 'out of the way') but also have some fantastic rented 
property.

>         * Do everything possible to make the traditional forms of rental
>         * impossible, indeed, illegal.  Give every household its own
>         * home, with space enough for a garden. Keep the emphasis in the
>         * definition of ownership on control, not on financial ownership.
>         * Indeed, where it is possible to construct forms of ownership
>         * which give people control over their houses and gardens, but
>         * make financial speculation impossible, choose those forms
> 	* above all others.  
Okay - but there is a culture in the UK for example that portrays one's 
house as a 'safe investment' and in these days of higher mobility, yes, 
a speculative wealth accumulator, even for those who are not 
specifically setting out to 'speculate'.  However I take the point about 
ownership and control and that is why a proper co-operative is a good 
model.  It gives the community control and the occupant tenure - 
possibly more so than with mortgaged ownership in the current climate 
(banks here are now talking of fifty year mortgages - one will never 
truly own one's own home in one's own lifetime).  There are even models 
of co-operative housing which allow for participation by leaseholders or 
owner occupiers as well in the overall running of the 'community' bits 
but give them the ability to do more than tenants in terms of what they 
want to do to their properties.

In the specific example of microflats with a tightly monitored market 
however, I stand by my contention.  Elsewhere in Europe the people these 
are being aimed at would not yet be thinking of buying in many cases. 
And in this case it presents a real problem - enticing people in by 
telling them it's a step on the ladder but then restricting any capital 
growth they might make to much lower than the capital growth on the 
'next step' on the ladder such is house price inflation.

However I would be happy with a model in which land value taxation made 
sure that the common weal benefitted properly from home ownership whilst 
doing more to dampen speculative ownership.

But it sounds like an interesting book all the same...:-)

Jock

--
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+  Jock Coats, Oxford Liberal Democrats, M3a Morrell Hall, OX3 0TU  +
+       T:+44 1865 485019 M:+44 7769 695767 F:+44 845 1275714       +
+   E(pref):jock.coats [at] oxfordlibdems.org.uk Cix:jockox3 [at] cix.co.uk   +
+     W1:www.oxfordlibdems.org.uk W2:aldco.oxfordlibdems.org.uk     +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



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