Dandelion Housing Co-op

We need your help! If you would like to help Dandelion Housing Co-op achieve its aims of providing affordable accommodation, we'd love to hear from you. We provide an ethical investment opportunity, and also are always seeking help of all kinds. If you feel that you can help us financially or in any other way, please get in touch.

Aims of Dandelion Housing Co-op We believe that it is possible to make housing affordable through co-operation, and that is our goal. Dandelion exists to provide housing for its members, but also aims to: actively promote alternative lifestyles, to attract funds through loan stock issues and participate in other fund raising activities, to actively engage with the local community in order to promote our interests, to seek new members where appropriate and necessary, and to help our members sustain their tenancies through mutual support.

Why are housing co-operatives so important? With affordable housing scarce or non-existent, and council housing waiting lists lengthening, the United Kingdom urgently needs more housing that is good quality but priced according to cost and not a landlord's commercial gain. Dandelion Housing Co-operative Ltd is a par value, fully mutual co-operative. All tenants are members and all members are either tenants or prospective tenants. With this model the ownership of houses and land cannot be divided up among the members. Property remains in common ownership from generation to generation.

Housing should be safe, good quality, affordable, sustainable and controlled by its residents. It should offer security of tenure, and be open to all without discrimination. We believe that housing co-operatives are the best way of achieving these goals.

Dandelion Housing Co-operative intends to join the hundreds of other housing co-operatives in the United Kingdom which provide housing, meeting all those criteria, for its members. In order to purchase some premises to realise that vision, we need to raise funds - this website is intended to provide information about the organisation and about housing co-operatives in general, and also as a point of contact where you can help get things up and running.

We have an opportunity not only to provide housing, and an alternative to the low standards and constant insecurity of private rented accommodation, but also to provide space for self-employment, support home education, and to build genuinely lasting communities.

Our vision involves providing a community for our members, with an emphasis on providing individual privacy but also communal areas, in the south west of England.

Frequently Asked Questions

How are you raising money?

We are seeking funds from a number of sources, and if you would like to help realise our goals (and all support is appreciated, however small) you can find out more on this page.

Mission

Working to establish a residential community offering good quality, tenant-controlled accommodation, with affordable rents and genuine security of tenure.

Business Plan

Please click here to download a copy of our Business Plan in pdf format

Join Us

If you are interested in joining us, and being part of the plans to set up a co-operative housing project, we would love to hear from you. Please get in touch using the Contact Us page, writing a couple of lines about yourself, and we will get back to you.

Donate

Thank you for your donation.