Formation | Incorporated 1 April 1992 [1] |
---|---|
Type | Secondary co-operative |
Registration no. | 27587R |
Legal status | Registered Society |
Purpose | Social change |
Region | United Kingdom |
Services | Co-operative development, finance, training, gatherings |
Membership | 36 housing co-ops and worker co-ops [2] |
Main organ | Quarterly Gathering of Members |
Website | radicalroutes.org.uk |
Radical Routes is a UK-based network of housing co-ops. [3] The organisation supports new and established co-ops through loan finance, training workshops, practical support, and national gatherings. [4] [5]
Radical Routes emerged in 1986 from a network of people in London and Hull who wanted to develop workers' co-operatives. [6] The network agreed its common aims and adopted the name Radical Routes in 1988, and became incorporated as Radical Routes Limited in 1992. [7] In 1998 Rootstock Limited was incorporated as an investment scheme supporting Radical Routes co-operatives. [8] The original house in Hockley was set up as the 'New Education Housing Co-op'. [9]
According to Rootstock, between 1991 and 2012 Radical Routes made over sixty loans to member co-ops – totaling over £1m – with no co-operatives defaulting on loan payments. [10] These loans have typically been used by member housing co-ops, in addition to finance from traditional lenders, to buy property. [11]
Radical Routes provides small loans (up to about £50,000) to member co-operatives. Decisions on making loans are made collectively by other member co-operatives, this has been described as "peer-group loan appraisal". [12]
Radical Routes publishes booklets on subjects such as How to set up a Housing Co-operative and How to set up a Worker Co-operative. [13]
With Cooperatives UK they launched proposals for an independent co-operative regulator after the government announced that it would be abolishing the FSA. Previously the FSA had regulated co-operatives, which were registered as industrial and provident societies.
Radical Routes is developing a ‘co-op cluster’ model for co-op housing with groups of housing co-ops combining their assets to buy new properties outright, eliminating mortgage interest. [14]
Member co-operatives are expected to commit to a share of Radical Routes' workload as volunteers, and work toward radical social change. [15] [16]
At January 2024 the organisation has 30 members: 26 housing co-ops and 4 worker co-ops. [17]
A 2014 round table report by Radical Routes and Friends Provident Foundation identified carpet bagging, among other things, as a systemic weakness within the existing housing co-op framework. [18] 'Carpet bagging' refers to established co-ops significantly reducing their rents or, rarely, selling their property for private gain. The report explores ways in which the systematic weaknesses might be addressed, mentioning the Mietshäuser Syndikat model as having provably solved the carpet bagging issue. [18]
A cooperative is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-controlled enterprise". Cooperatives are democratically controlled by their members, with each member having one vote in electing the board of directors. Cooperatives may include:
A housing cooperative, or housing co-op, is a legal entity, usually a cooperative or a corporation, which owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings; it is one type of housing tenure. Typically housing cooperatives are owned by shareholders but in some cases they can be owned by a non-profit organization. They are a distinctive form of home ownership that have many characteristics that differ from other residential arrangements such as single family home ownership, condominiums and renting.
The Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op and formerly known as the Co-operative Wholesale Society, is a British consumer co-operative with a group of retail businesses including grocery retail and wholesale, legal services, funerals and insurance retailing.
A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and self-managed by its workers. This control may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision-making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one in which management is elected by every worker-owner who each have one vote.
Your Co-op is an independent consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom. It provides landline, mobile telephone and Internet services, including web hosting and broadband. Now part of the Midcounties Co-operative, the largest independent co-operative in the UK, it is owned by its customer-members who share in its profits. This makes The Phone Co-op the only telephone co-operative in the UK.
Subsidized housing is government sponsored economic assistance aimed towards alleviating housing costs and expenses for impoverished people with low to moderate incomes. In the United States, subsidized housing is often called "affordable housing". Forms of subsidies include direct housing subsidies, non-profit housing, public housing, rent supplements/vouchers, and some forms of co-operative and private sector housing. According to some sources, increasing access to housing may contribute to lower poverty rates.
An industrial and provident society (IPS) is a body corporate registered for carrying on any industries, businesses, or trades specified in or authorised by its rules.
The United Kingdom is home to a widespread and diverse co-operative movement, with over 7,000 registered co-operatives owned by 17 million individual members and which contribute £34bn a year to the British economy. Modern co-operation started with the Rochdale Pioneers' shop in the northern English town of Rochdale in 1844, though the history of co-operation in Britain can be traced back to before 1800. The British co-operative movement is most commonly associated with The Co-operative brand which has been adopted by several large consumers' co-operative societies; however, there are many thousands of registered co-operative businesses operating in the UK. Alongside these consumers' co-operatives, there exist many prominent agricultural co-operatives (621), co-operative housing providers (619), health and social care cooperatives (111), cooperative schools (834), retail co-operatives, co-operatively run community energy projects, football supporters' trusts, credit unions, and worker-owned businesses.
A consumers' co-operative is an enterprise owned by consumers and managed democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members. Such co-operatives operate within the market system, independently of the state, as a form of mutual aid, oriented toward service rather than pecuniary profit. Many cooperatives, however, do have a degree of profit orientation. Just like other corporations, some cooperatives issue dividends to owners based on a share of total net profit or earnings ; or based on a percentage of the total amount of purchases made by the owner. Regardless of whether they issue a dividend or not, most consumers’ cooperatives will offer owners discounts and preferential access to good and services.
The Midcounties Co-operative Limited, trading as Your Co-op, is a consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom with over 700,000 members. Registered in England under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, it is a member of Co-operatives UK and Federal Retail Trading Services.
Cooperative economics is a field of economics that incorporates cooperative studies and political economy toward the study and management of cooperatives.
The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives across the world. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement began with the application of cooperative principles to business organization.
A student housing cooperative, also known as co-operative housing, is a housing cooperative for student members. Members live in alternative cooperative housing that they personally own and maintain. These houses are designed to lower housing costs while providing an educational and community environment for students to live and grow in. They are, in general, nonprofit, communal, and self-governing, with students pooling their monetary and personal resources to create a community style home. Many student housing cooperatives share operation and governing of the house. As with most cooperatives, student housing coops follow the Rochdale Principles and promote collaboration and community work done by the members for mutual benefit.
Musselburgh and Fisherrow Co-operative Society Limited was a retail consumer co-operative trading in the Scottish towns of Musselburgh and Dalkeith. It was founded as a co-operative in 1862, and, in 2007, joined the small number of UK co-operative retailers to demutualise.
The Channel Islands' Co-operative Society is a long-established consumer co-operative with stores in the Channel Islands. Its head office is located in Saint Helier in Jersey.
A bicycle cooperative can take the many forms of the cooperative model. These often include co-ops composed of businesses to achieve economies of scale, co-ops managed by those who work at the business, and bicycle co-ops owned and managed by the cyclists that use their services. To date, many bicycle co-ops have taken the form of community bike shops and cooperatives organized to give the local bike shop national scale and buying power.
Students for Cooperation (SFC) is a co-operative federation of students in the UK. As a secondary co-op, the organization is owned and controlled by its constituent member co-operatives.
Base for Anarchy & Solidarity in Easton, commonly known as BASE, is an anarchist community co-operative and self-managed social centre in Easton, Bristol, England. Formerly known as Kebele, the building was squatted in 1995.
The Mietshäuser Syndikat is a cooperative, non-commercial joint venture in Germany that helps communities acquire long-term affordable living space via a legal, collective property arrangement. As of September 2022, there are 177 Hausprojekte within the MHS, with 17 further initiatives looking for suitable property.
Sanford Housing Co-operative or Sanford Co-op is a housing co-operative located in south east London. Currently home to around 120 people, it is the first purpose-built housing co-operative in the United Kingdom and has run without interruption since its opening in 1974.