The Co-housing Movement – Has Its Time Come?

Should housing associations work with co-housing communities to help get their projects built? Charlotte Cook considers the ups and downs.

It was Margaret Thatcher who famously said "there is no such thing as community". But the continuing rise of co-housing schemes suggests that community is very much thriving. As we emerge from a post-COVID landscape where the value of strong communities has been shown, is now the time for housing associations to embrace the co-housing movement?

The co-housing movement first emerged in northern Europe as groups of like-minded individuals joined together to buy a plot of land and build their own homes around communal spaces. The first UK scheme was created in the 1990s and while remaining on the fringe of the UK housing mix for two decades, co-housing schemes are now increasing in popularity and moving into the mainstream.