CASH’s vision is to create more co-operative living, working and social spaces for the community. Our current focus is on housing projects which aim to provide security, control and increasing affordability.
How are we delivering our vision? CASH has explored various routes to creating more housing co-ops in an extremely challenging environment. We are currently partnering with existing housing co-operatives, groups of people who don't yet have properties for their co-ops and the Collective Ownership Society (COS). COS is a secondary co-op and financial mechanism seeking to transform co-operative housing in the UK. Read more here
We work with new and existing housing co-operatives through outreach, training, governance support, access to professional expertise and routes to finance. We are helping groups move from early ideas into viable, sustainable communities. As a member-led organisation, we are rooted in democratic ownership and collective stewardship. CASH has ‘active members’, ‘supporters’ and ‘organisational members’ and is open to everyone.
Housing
House prices and rents continue to increase while real term wages stagnate and interest rates are on the rise. It is increasingly hard for most people to afford buying a property or otherwise access secure accommodation, with London being the least affordable region in the country. The UK is built on a housing model that is broken, and results in the enriching of a few, and the exploitation of many.
Regeneration schemes won't fix this. Private landlords will never fix this. CASH advocates for community-first thinking and co-operative ownership of housing - a human right, not an investment.
Working
Most often we are employed to the job without a sense of ownership or control of the business we work for. Hierarchical work environments strip away meaningful input and foster powerlessness and burnout, leading to phenomenons such as great resignation and quiet qutting. Work should make us proud not merely because our salaries but due to the positive impact we have on the world and our communities. Embracing this urgent responsibility with a co-operative ownership structure offers an innovative force capable of overcoming single-minded desire for profit.
Living
Our communities are unequal, divided and set against each other. Loneliness is an endemic problem in densely populated UK cities. People dwell in their own bubbles, often not even knowing their neighbours. Racism and sexism remains a widespread feature of everyday life for many people in Britain and is still embedded in its institutions. As local community members we can take initiative to bring a variety of our backgrounds and create spaces of freedom and creativity, nurturing our generation and those to come.
Sustainability
The environmental emergency is inextricably linked to the housing crisis. Our environmental policy is rooted in Social Ecology – the belief that a sustainable environment requires a socially just and co-operative management of resources.
We do not view ‘sustainability’ as a series of technical additions, but as a fundamental shift in how we own, build and live in our city.
CASH will be proactive in supporting all stakeholders to be aware of opportunities to fulfil our mission. These opportunities may include retrofit to mutualising shared infrastructures, reducing carbon footprint through sharing resources such as vehicles, white goods and use of shared spaces.
We have carried out a range of successful initiatives, even during most challenging times for face-to-face community groups. Find out more about a few of those projects and imagine yours!
