Covent Garden Housing Co-Operative

Now in our sixth year as a tenant management co-operative, we manage 86 homes in the Camden part of Covent Garden.

Generally, it's been a quiet year. Several of our older, life-long Covent Garden residents died or moved into a nursing home. The good news is that the St Pancras and Humanist Housing Association and Camden Council are taking the Covent Garden criteria more seriously, namely the list of priorities for housing people in Covent Garden according to the strength of their ties to the area.

Those of us who were tenants before January 1989 are here through the hard work of the CGCA convincing the GLC to rehouse people in need because of the redevelopment of the area. The GLC built and renovated homes on both sides of the council border as well as persuading Camden and Westminster to do the same within their borders. The results have been generally comfortable, imaginatively designed homes.

The down side was the Conservative government's policy giving tenants the 'right to buy' our homes. Of our 86 properties, 29 were bought by then tenants, mostly one-bedroom and bedsits. Sixteen properties were sold as soon as it was legally possible with the former tenants moving away from the area. Eight continued living in the flats, moving away eventually. One died and only four of the original 29 still live here, compared with 43 of the 57 properties occupied by the original tenants or their sons and daughters. In other words, 14% of leaseholders and 75% of tenants have stayed.

Where this has caused problems is that many of the properties are now rented in the private sector by the leaseholders, who quite rightly charge full market rents. This causes a mismatch in expectations between our traditional tenants and those expecting a much higher level of services. There is no easy solution to this, but it's one we have to work towards in the coming year.

Jessica Skippon

Covent Garden Community Association Annual Report 2000-2001

 

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