A housing co-op is a legal body (rather than bricks and mortar) that allows a group of individuals to buy and run their own housing needs for themselves. It is formally registered under the Industrial and Provident Act 1965. The largest co-ops, particularly in big cities, are very like housing associations with tenant committees, whilst the smallest are much like shared house with each member renting their own room and sharing some other spaces such as the kitchen.The vision of Dandelion Housing Co-op is to provide private facilities for its members, but also communal areas to foster community.

Housing co-operatives are less common in the UK than in Europe, but nevertheless a successful business model: the UK government's Commission on Co-operative and Mutual Housing believes that there are "at least 36,000 homes in the mutual housing sector" in England alone. Furthermore,  co-operatives make for good homes: just 4 per cent of homes are below the decent homes standard, nine points better than the national figure for social housing. Satisfaction among tenants - at 95 per cent - is significantly higher than the national housing association norm of 79 per cent, as judged by the Audit Commission.

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. Each member holds one share, valued at a nominal £1. 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 and if the co-operative is dissolved the assets must be passed to another co-operative or to a not for profit organisation with similar aims and principles.

Co-operatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, co-operative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others.