Housing Cooperatives Research Articles

Public service operational efficiency and blockchain – A case study of Companies House, UK

Despite the increasing interest and exploration of the use of blockchain technology in public service organisations (PSOs), academic understanding of its transformative impact on the operational excellence of PSOs remains limited. This study adopts an action design science research methodology to develop a proof of concept (POC) blockchain based application for Companies House, a government agency that is registering companies across UK. The application addresses the operational challenges of Companies House as well as issues citizens face when accessing its services. We draw from the public value framework proposed by Twizeyimana and Andersson (2019) and demonstrate the significance of the emerging blockchain technology in relation to their democratic practices based on six dimensions. We further discuss the related challenges and barriers for its implementation and evaluate the POC with the stakeholders of Companies House. We also present an illustrative case study, where we explored the appropriateness of the POC in relation to the draft legislation, “Registration of Overseas Entities and Beneficial Owners” (ROEBO) bill which proposes the introduction of a register of the beneficial owners of overseas legal entities that own real estate in the UK. Our research is one of the few studies that will provide in-depth empirical insights about the relationship between blockchain and operational excellence of PSOs.

Framework of affordable cooperative housing through an innovative waqf-based source of finance in Karachi

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to introduce an innovative framework called the waqf cooperative housing framework (WCHF), with an objective to create a synergistic equilibrium between waqf and cooperative housing schemes. To tackle problems related to the dearth of financing, this research postulates an innovative waqf-based source of finance that involves generating revenue from common areas (waqf area) within the vicinity of the condominium.Design/methodology/approachPrimary data were collected through interviews and the data were analysed using the NVIVO software. The interviewees comprised managers from property development sectors, public sector officials, university lecturers in Islamic finance, CEOs, top management officials from Islamic financial institutions, community leaders and shariah scholars.FindingsA framework was proposed based on the result of the interviews. It was found that innovative models such as WCHF can resolve the issue of affordable housing in Karachi such as decreasing the financial burden on the public exchequer, bringing positive change to the lives of the poor, fulfilling the property developer’s corporate social responsibility, fulfilling the religious duty of the general public and condominium owners towards their fellow beings as well as creating new employment opportunities for people who are working in the financial sector (waqf management companies/trustees) and the construction sector.Research limitations/implicationsEven though this study has introduced an innovative and practical solution to the financing of affordable housing, it also encountered some limitations. First, it is conducted in Karachi city involving six group of respondents; thus, the findings cannot be generalised with other contexts. Similar research needs to be conducted in different contexts.Originality/valueTo date, this is among the first studies, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to investigate cooperative affordable housing with the help of innovative Islamic finance tools in the context of Pakistan. Furthermore, insufficient attention has been given to the enabling and hindering factors behind the acceptance of a framework that seeks to initiate a cooperative scheme based on an innovative waqf financing tool that generates revenue from common areas around a condominium.

Feminism and the Servant Problem: Class and Domestic Labour in the Women's Suffrage Movement

Feminism and the Servant Problem: Class and Domestic Labour in the Women's Suffrage Movement

Cultural governance within and across cities and regions: Evidence from the English publicly funded arts sector

There are significant inequalities in the publicly funded arts sector in England, including significant spatial inequalities. If anything, the critique of spatial inequalities in this ecology do not go far enough. This article uses a unique dataset of the boards of directors of Arts Council England’s national portfolio, derived from Companies House. While a majority of national portfolio organisations do not share board members with any other organisation, the analysis demonstrates that London-based organisations are significantly more likely to share board members with other companies than organisations outside London – and that, where an organisation outside of London does share a board member with a company in another region, it is more likely to be with a company in London than all other regions put together. It further demonstrates that this effect is most pronounced where these organisations are part of the same artform. Crucially, the organisations connected to London have more than double the portfolio income of other organisations, whether they share board members or not. This illustration of the concentration of power in London in the publicly funded arts sector, over and above the distribution of organisations in general, demonstrates the conceptual value of a cultural economy that emerges from interconnections within a local or national ecosystem. At the same time, the analysis and findings push the cultural ecology literature to centre inequality as a core issue as the concept is developed. Even the local cultural ecosystem is not exempt from the impact of the nation’s uneven (cultural) geography.

Energy efficiency at what cost? Unjust burden-sharing of rent increases in extensive energy retrofitting projects in Sweden

Although renovation costs can lead to rent increases in energy retrofitting, it is often assumed that reductions in energy costs will counterbalance the rent increase. In Swedish multifamily housing, energy costs for heating are however generally included as a fixed component in the monthly rent, meaning that the rent increase after energy retrofitting corresponds to the net change in rent level as well as energy costs for heating. This makes Sweden a methodologically advantageous setting for studying tenants' cost burden of energy retrofitting. The aim of this study was thus to investigate how energy performance improvement has affected rent increases in Swedish renovation projects between 2013 and 2019. Utilising a national database of multifamily housing, it was found that energy retrofitting entailed a cost relief for tenants in renovation projects with smaller investments. However, in renovation projects with larger investments, energy retrofitting entailed a cost burden for tenants. Moreover, public housing companies had conducted a high share of the extensive energy retrofits, leading to low-income tenant groups being disproportionately subjected to cost burdens of energy retrofitting. On the contrary, light energy retrofits with a cost relief for energy efficiency had been rather evenly distributed across income groups. These results indicate ongoing conflicts with the ability-to-pay principle in the energy transition of Swedish multifamily housing, and suggest that if low-investment energy retrofits are not sufficient for upcoming objectives and requirements, subsidies could be needed to compensate low-income tenants for the cost burden of extensive energy retrofitting.

Evaluation of increased electricity production when cooling solar panels

A municipal housing company located in the south of Sweden has energy renovated several buildings with a total of 380 apartments to meet today’s energy standards. Several energy efficient technologies and solutions were implemented and the energy consumption for these buildings were lowered by 50%. One of the buildings functions as a demonstration building for innovative solutions such as low temperature district heating, waste water heat recovery, and solar photovoltaic and thermal (PVT) panels. The solar PVT panels are cooled down with the main purpose to increase the electricity production. The cooling medium for these panels is circulated through two bedrock boreholes to dissipate the collected heat. The heat from the boreholes is then used for an electric heat pump to produce heat to send to the local district heating company. The electricity produced is primarily used in the building. The objective of this paper is to assess the electricity production from real-life outdoor Photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) plant. The plant was installed on the roof top of an energy renovated multi-family apartment building located in the south of Sweden. The cooling of the panels were turned on and off to assess if the electricity production would increase or not. The electricity production did not increase when the cooling was applied. The temperature measuring equipment which was installed at the wrong position and was supposed to measure the temperature at the back of the PVT is needed to compare the efficiency of the PVT plant and draw further conclusions.

What are typical levels of housing renovation? A typology based on Swedish public strategies

The gap between energy policy and potential energy savings through renovation, and what is carried out in practice has been in focus of previous research. Various influencing factors such as economy, organisation, and social relations versus tenants has been studied to design guidelines to bridge this gap. There is a lack of empirical studies of how renovation is planned, and what factors will influence the renovation measures that are implemented. This paper takes the starting point in 42 on-going and planned housing renovation projects 2018 – 2021 carried out by three municipal housing companies in one major Swedish metropolitan area. Based on the character of these, three main types of housing renovation are defined. The most current type of renovation is bathroom and piping while climate envelope renovation and deep renovation are less common. Energy saving is decoupled from renovation activities which will have implications for implementation of policy for energy efficient renovation.

Future proof real estate companies through sustainable development of institutional building stocks – Basics and tools

The stakeholders and companies in the real estate industry are facing new challenges. They must react to megatrends such as climate change, resource depletion, shift in social values, demographic change and digitalization and at the same time comply with their responsibility to society and environment. In order to contribute to sustainable development and thereby ensure the future viability of the company, it is necessary to consider the social, environmental and economic impact of any business activities and decisions. Referring to the German market, a discussion will be based on the example of housing companies to show how sustainability aspects can be integrated into the instrument of portfolio analysis. The interactions between sustainability aspects resulting of the external business environment, the respective location characteristics, the building performance and the rentability and marketability as a success factor will be discussed. In this context, it will be explained how to react dynamically to a changing environment by using adaptable weighting factors and to local location and market requirements. As a conclusion, it will be discussed how the concerns of society, the cities (housing districts) and the tenants can be taken into account in addition to the economic interests of the housing companies.

Moving to shared equity: locational outcomes for households in shared equity homeownership programs

The impact of U.S. housing policy on household locational outcomes has primarily been studied in the context of rental housing assistance programs, but the impact of alternative homeownership models is less fully explored. In this study, we assess residential trajectories for households that have participated in shared-equity homeownership (SEH) programs such as Community Land Trusts and Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives. We examine changes in neighborhood characteristics that occur when households enter and exit SEH units, and compare those outcomes with similar households that entered traditional homeownership or continued to rent. We find that while entering SEH is associated with decreases in neighborhood opportunity measures, exiting SEH is associated with improvements in key measures including lower concentrations of poverty. We conclude that while entering SEH may entail moving to lower-opportunity neighborhoods, participation in SEH programs increases the long-term economic and socio-spatial mobility of participating households by enabling them to access a broader array of neighborhood contexts in their subsequent move.

Predatory commodification and housing renovation

ABSTRACT This study explores the renovation of housing governed by two tenure forms in Sweden, rental and cooperative housing. Based on a relational approach, we argue that despite requiring a similar need of maintenance at regular intervals, renovation in rental housing takes a substantially different form compared to cooperatives, regarding the extent of the work, the involvement of, and the outcome for, the residents. With the concept of predatory housing commodification, we aim at examining how the process of housing renovation is organized, what driving forces motivate renovations, along with how it impacts affected residents. Our contribution is twofold: firstly, we conceptualize renovation of housing as a commodifying process, within the realm of financialization, most often carried out brutally and contributing to housing inequality; secondly, our contribution is empirical as it covers housing renovation from a relational and contrasting perspective in a field that is still under-studied in the Scandinavian context.

Do they do as they say?

Abstract This paper responds to Bathelt and Li’s (2020) call for selecting more appropriate methods and improving their rigour by evaluating the feasibility of using factorial surveys to anticipate future relocation behaviour. By utilising a case study approach, focussing on Brexit and the UK FinTech industry, the paper examines to what extent business managers’ relocation intentions are driven by factors similar to those known to drive actual relocation behaviour and compares business managers’ relocation intentions with their companies’ actual relocation outcomes. We use a factorial survey conducted in 2018, which allows us to quantitatively analyse the impact of different Brexit scenarios and selected company characteristics on business managers’ likelihood to intend to relocate their UK business unit (or some functions thereof) to the EU and/or the US. Additionally, we collected qualitative secondary data on the actual relocation outcomes of the surveyed companies in February 2022 by investigating online platforms, such as LinkedIn, Companies House, and Crunchbase, as well as company webpages. The results of this mixed-methods approach highlight a significant variation in business managers’ intentions, and the importance of geographical and institutional proximity for relocation intentions and outcomes. We show that business managers’ relocation intentions are driven by factors similar to those known to drive actual relocation behaviour, such as their perception of the economic consequences of different Brexit scenarios, their territorial embeddedness, as well as their nationality. Most importantly, our findings indicate that, although factorial surveys are only moderately accurate when predicting the exact extent and destination of actual relocation, they are highly accurate when predicting whether a company relocates or not.

A blockchain approach can reveal the benefits of a hybrid airspace

Price water house Coopers estimates that the UK is sitting on £42bn of potential economic growth over the coming decade associated with the drones and uncrewed aircraft market. The problem is that wholesale transformation of existing air traffic management (ATM) systems is needed to open up a new age of commercial opportunities: urban air taxis, cargo and delivery services, security operations, healthcare support and environmental monitoring.

A goal-framing perspective on the important aspects of energy-efficient multifamily buildings.

The growth of Sweden’s urban population necessitates new approaches for increasing the sustainability and energy efficiency of multifamily buildings. The development of such approaches will require a holistic and integrated understanding of the factors driving the decision making of both professionals who design buildings and end-users who live in them. This paper, therefore, uses the goal framing theory to determine which aspects of multifamily buildings are considered important by these two groups of actors. An empirical study based on semi-structured interviews with professionals involved in building design and development (project developers, housing company representatives, architects, and engineers; N = 15) was conducted to identify goals affecting the choices made during building design and development. In parallel, a questionnaire survey of building end-users (N = 61) was conducted to determine which factors guided their choice of dwelling. It was found that professionals’ design choices were primarily governed by normative goals relating to environmental benefits but were also influenced by the other goals. These included gain goals relating to budgetary constraints and keeping the building’s operational and maintenance costs low. Hedonic goals were also important; some design choices were made with the aim of providing pleasant, comfortable, and convenient living environments, or of giving the buildings a distinct aesthetic or some other special features. By comparing the professionals’ responses to the end-user surveys, it was found that the two groups had similar views concerning gain goals; both considered it important for apartments to be affordable and easy to maintain. However, their views on hedonic and normative goals differed markedly. The professionals sought to strike an optimal balance between different related aspects, whereas end-users placed greater importance on aspects relating to hedonic and gain goals when choosing dwellings. The findings provide a basis for constructive discussions on building design and development, and the scope for creating buildings that encourage end-users to adopt sustainable living practices while also satisfying their needs and preferences.

The smart meets the conventional: Media storylines and societal frames on the energy action of housing cooperatives

In the acceleration phase of energy transitions, the role of community and citizen action is emphasised. The role of active, smart and experimental communities and individuals adopting novel practices and technologies is often contrasted with more conventional and mundane everyday practices, which change only slowly. In this context, the role of news media is central in disseminating information, mediating confrontations, and offering a space for shared societal frames on transition. This article examines Finnish media storylines on emerging energy technologies and practices in housing cooperatives, which manage most of the apartment buildings in Finland and thus have a key role in energy transition. Focusing on 17 years of development in three mainstream media, we first identify three main phases in media discourse intensity, focus and level of detail. Next, we analyse the ten main storylines on stabilising and reconfiguring the role of housing cooperatives in energy system change. Finally, we combine these storylines with cross-cutting societal frames on governmentalizing energy communities from the perspectives of technological anticipation, saving potentials and governance interventions.

How tax policies create unexpected results when interest rates are low: A case study of Finnish housing company debt and private investor return1

Abstract Finnish limited liability housing companies (LLHCs) are increasing their debt ratios quickly. In this paper, I argue that current tax rules encourage this behaviour owing to strong shareholder tax incentives for a higher debt ratio. Although tax rules are designed to be neutral, Finnish tax rules related to selling assets are profitable for LLHC shareowners in cases where debt rates are high owing to taxable profits being based not on actual acquisition costs but on presumed acquisition costs derived from the selling price. Both tax deductibility of LLHC financial charges and the presumed acquisition cost rule are from a time when interests and inflation were higher than they currently are. Both of these were used to counter the adverse effects of inflation and interest for asset owners and LLHC shareholders. Currently, when inflation and interest rates are close to zero, these rules have created an incentive for a behaviour that increases risks for the whole economy and reduces tax income.

Long-Term Dynamics of New Residential Supply: A Case Study of the Apartment Segment in Sweden

Since the size of the homeownership ratio differs significantly between countries, it is important to understand the mechanisms that lie behind the decrease or growth of certain sectors of the housing market such as rentals and housing cooperatives. The aim of this study is to analyze the long-term dynamics of the new residential supply in Sweden’s three largest cities for the period of 1990–2020 and estimate in what way market fundamentals affect it through new construction and housing conversions. We apply panel data methodology and, in distinction to previous research, consider the development of the housing market (urban growth) as physical volume. The results demonstrate that structural changes are driven mainly by fundamental demand factors and that the displacement effect occurs primarily in the market’s rental sector and not in the owner-occupied segment. The apartment price per square meter, together with mortgage interest rates, are the major driving factors in the process of converting dwellings into housing cooperatives. Fundamental variables that affect new construction in both the rental and housing cooperative sectors are population and income growth. In the presence of a rent control environment, the rent or price level does not contribute to adding new units to the total housing stock.

About the Importance of Planning the Location of Recycling Stations in the Urban Context

Recycling is essential to the circular economy and reduces the environmental impact of our consumption. Creating conditions for recycling in new residential areas is relatively easy but finding good recycling opportunities in existing residential areas is more complicated. The recycling of newspapers, plastic and glass must be relatively close to where people live; at the same time, the locations must be relatively discreet and not disturb the residents in the area. The purpose of the article is to analyse the effect of small and local recycling stations (RCSs) on the attractiveness of residential areas. This has been made possible by analysing housing values for almost 200,000 housing units near 250 RCSs in Stockholm, Sweden. Using an identification strategy that relies on postal code fixed effects, we find evidence that the proximity to RCS affects housing prices on average in both owner-occupied single-family houses and cooperative owner-occupied apartments (condominiums). The results indicate that proximity to the RCS is negatively capitalised in housing values (the effect amounts to approximately 1.3 percent of the housing values), which indicates that the city should consider this in its planning.

Housing co-operatives in crisis

The co-operative housing sector in Britain has recently been in the paradoxical position of experiencing universal political support for its achievements, rapid growth in some areas, and severe problems in others, culminating in the launch of a ‘Time for Action’ campaign and the sudden winding up of the National Federation of Housing Co-operatives (NFHC). The paper suggests that main forces at work, the impacts, and implications for future actions.

Social and co-operative housing: The new act.

The Housing Bill, which was featured in the Journal (Birchall, 1988), is finally the 1988 Housing Act. On the one hand it is hard to keep up with all the changes. On the other hand, the core of the Bill, as outlined in the May issue of the Journal remains remarkably intact. This paper looks at the impact on housing associations, tenants' transfer proposals, the co-operative option, and the case for a new tenant involvement agency.

Flying below the radar: England’s early co-operative and co-partnership tenant societies today

Ten co-operative housing societies established in the period immediately before the First World War continue to operate today, providing inexpensive rental accommodation to their tenant-members. Their survival is remarkable, particularly as they have almost no knowledge of the other remaining societies and no relationship with the mainstream co-operative housing movement. Although each society has evolved its own ways of operating, all maintain structures which remain recognisably co-operative. The challenges they have faced, for example in avoiding demutualisation, in building adequate governance structures, and in reconciling individual member interests with the collective interests of the whole society, provide valuable lessons, particularly for today’s community-led housing initiatives.