OWCH Get Planning Approval For UK’s First Older Persons Cohousing

An overview of how OWCH (and partners) have achieved this milestone- submitted by Maria Brenton (15th April 2013)

The Older Women’s Cohousing group in London has been a byword for longevity along the lines of ‘always the bridesmaid, never the bride’, but finally it has great news for rejoicing.  Planning permission on April 9 this year was a just reward for the long endurance of a determined group of women. It will be the first senior cohousing community in the UK and will blaze a trail for positive approaches to societal and individual ageing throughout the country.

It is a truism, but it is safe to say that OWCH was born before its time as far as public policy goes.  It would be boring to recount the number of sites OWCH has had and lost, and how many housing associations have lost interest in the group after an initial enthusiasm. Suffice it to say that a long hard struggle by a relatively low-income group, needing a backer to front-fund their development, has at last culminated in planning approval.

The site in High Barnet, London was purchased for the group three years ago by Hanover Housing Association. A small disused school in a Victorian conservation area, it is ideal for older people, being minutes from High Street shops, banks, post office, library and transport routes.In this congested urban environment, parking was the subject of local objections to the planning application. Anticipating these, OWCH members have undertaken to share cars or relinquish cars, and to make best use of a limited number of onsite parking spaces with no on-street parking allowable.

OWCH will be only the second mixed tenure cohousing group linked to a housing association. Members owe a debt of gratitude to two housing associations, Housing for Women and Hanover. The former, H4W, a small organisation specialising in housing management rather than development, has stuck with the OWCH group through thick and thin, acting as a conduit to developer housing associations and sites. Its chief executive, Elizabeth Clarson, and Development Director, Meera Bedi, have always ‘got’ the idea of cohousing and its central ethos of self-determination and autonomy for members. This organisation has been a faithful friend. 

Hanover is OWCH’s developer. Its chief executive, Bruce Moore, undertook at one of the UKCN’s seminars for housing associations, nearly four years ago, to find the group a site. This fitted in with Hanover’s decision, fuelled by Bruce’s personal interest in cohousing, to ‘work with a number of cohousing groups to help them design the housing and buildings they want in order to live as positive and self-supporting communities (Hanover Annual Report, 2011/12. Also see http://www.hanover.org.uk/hanover-achieves-planning-permission-for-innovative-cohousing-scheme).

Behind the granting of planning permission lies three years of persistent work. Hanover’s planning consultants contributed the technical expertise which finally pulled it off, but the  OWCH group did much of the footwork. OWCH members have honed their skills and gained much useful experience in planning and design and local lobbying and outreach. As their project consultant, I have spearheaded the latter in the Borough, working with the group to mount weekly ‘drop-ins’ in a local café, organise public meetings, visit all the neighbours in the street with invitations to an exhibition of the site plans, meet Teresa Villiers, M.P. and top officials, communicate with councillors, leaflet the area and mount displays in library windows. H4W’s PR Company, Champollion, contributed the final touch for OWCH, by securing an article about the group in the local press. This led to an instant interest from BBC London and TV and radio appearances which have had a wide impact.

Next steps are for Hanover to tender the build contract and start demolition and construction. It will then sell 17 units to individual OWCH purchasers and 8 units to Housing for Women. It is hoped that completion will be by late 2015 or early 2016. This is a testing length of time for a group whose oldest members are now in their early 80s, but members have learned resilience, above all.

Over the time all this has taken, the group has amassed considerable ‘social capital’ - the key ingredient of cohousing. Although scattered through London and beyond, OWCH members are already a community, participative, hard-working, friendly, helpful to each other and sociable. They are much wiser and older since the project was first mooted and are happy to share what they have learned. OWCH has perfected all kinds of community-building practices over the years and is well-placed to become an exemplar to other older groups. This educative function is, as it happens, the only request made of the group by the Tudor Trust, who have funded the group’s running costs and will contribute to capital funding of the social rental flats in the scheme to be managed by Housing for Women. H4W will occupy a partnership role in the fully mutual co-operative OWCH has set up.

The next few weeks will, hopefully, see all the various legal agreements tied up which have been ‘shelved’ for years, awaiting planning permission. Recruitment of new members will continue, as the group is aware that over two years anything can happen in its age-group. They want to create a ‘waiting pool’ of additional women for the two tenures who know the group and are known and who sign up to OWCH values.

OWCH members are active Londoners and many of them are still employed. They are all  culture-vultures who make the most of their Freedom Passes. High Barnet is quite far out of town, but has some really lovely green spaces around it (Green Belt) and a thriving cultural life. The group is resourceful and, as it has always aimed to become a local resource for whatever locality it ended up in, will be anticipating getting involved locally. There is a way to go yet.  Selling up and moving will be a challenge to women who have lived for many years in their current homes. The OWCH ‘relocation task group’ is now on the case, with numerous handy tips for life-laundering, sharing conveyancing costs, etc. The OWCH women will cope magnificently, now that light has appeared at the end of the tunnel.