2026 marks the 40th anniversary of a foundational meeting between the New Education Housing Co‑op (NEHC) and Giroscope. The NEHC was born from the New University Project — an ambitious plan to build a radical university in the countryside. Failing to secure enough funds for the full project the group founded NEHC in inner city Birmingham. The NEHC are still going and are now situated in a semi-rural location north of Swansea. The origins of Hull’s Giroscope project — a radical worker’s co-op — began with its original members pooling their ‘giros’ (the dole cheques which used to be issued to people on benefits by the National Girobank) to buy and renovate dilapidated houses to create affordable homes for people in need. Giroscope now has a portfolio of genuinely affordable homes in Hull, as well as community buildings like the newly launched St Mathew’s Community Enterprise Centre.
Originally, both organisations wanted to establish workers’ co‑ops in response to a desire for democratic workplaces. A natural companion to this ambition was the establishment of housing co-ops, structures that allow members to collectively purchase and manage property, kept in co-operative ownership to guarantee secure housing for future generations. As Gemma from Redcurrant Housing Co-op, a member of the RR network, explains:
‘I think housing and work are interlinked under capitalism and having secure housing allows people in work to organise more effectively. I feel that one of the most important things for me living in Redcurrant is knowing that if I get fired from work for organising I still have a home. I feel that every worker should have this safety net as a given, however the lack of social housing deliberately prevents workers from being able to organise effectively and more bravely.’
Add new comment