Nic Bliss, Charlie Baker, Cliff Mills, Mike Gaskell and Malcolm Temple

The advantages of a mutual approach to large-scale housing stock transfers, through which local authorities divest themselves of their social housing stock are discussed in Transferring Ownership – Community Empowerment in Social Housing.

Mutuo’s Housing Community Mutual provides extensive opportunities for tenant control and community empowerment resulting from a stock transfer programme. Under the model, ownership of local authority housing stock would be transferred to a tenant centred organisation, rather than a traditional registered social landlord such as a Housing Association. Unlike the majority of Housing Associations, the Community Mutual will give tenants a constitutional stake in the management and ownership of their housing.

The model is based on a belief that increasing the empowerment of tenants and the wider community will deliver better quality management, more cohesive communities and increased opportunities, especially for people who are traditionally without power.