In 1967, John Hands, the then president of the University of London, formed a group to tackle social and economic inequalities in Sandford. He set up a pilot housing coop with the aim of taking control from landlords and helping to reduce isolation and loneliness for young people.
Housing Cooperatives are quite distinct from individual renting or buying. They are about ‘collective ownership’ rather than the traditional hierarchical tenancy relationship – Sandford cooperative collectively owns the housing which has been designed and controlled by the tenants.
When forming, the cooperative had a six year battle to overcome legislation and planning obstacles, they found some land in Lewisham on contaminated ground that the local authority said was unfit for family housing (Lewisham District Council agreed to give this land to the coop providing there was no children living on it due to soil contamination.)
The Coop was able to secure a 40-year mortgage, signed by the Housing Corporation which was paid off in 2013. And in 2013, The coop decided to take on a new mortgage to refurbish the housing and reduce the carbon footprint.
- After 55 years the coop is still going strong with 120 residents, 14 shared houses and 6 individual flats. 8-9 people live in each of the 14 shared houses and the individual flats are usually given to the people who contribute most to the coop.
- The cost to rent an individual flat is £75 a week
- It is £67 a week to rent the shared accommodation
All in all, rent for coop residents is less than £300 a month with bills all included (which is pretty good for living in London!)
- To be eligible to live in the coop, specific criteria has to be met: residents need to be single people, with no children. Each applicant is interviewed by members.
- The floorplan is the same for all the homes. The site also houses a large bike shed, a pond and seating areas. The residents also have a local store and ‘honesty box’ in the shed. They grow fruit and veg, have a bike workshop and kiln and green space has been developed on top of an old car park.
Sandford Coop has been going for a long time so is pretty well established. This has meant they it been able to help other housing coops out over the years by purchasing loan stock on their behalf and giving them money with a 0-4% interest, loaned for a period of 0-25 years. Sandford coop have recently given loans to housing coops in Derbyshire and Brighton.
