Find out more
6-9pm
Monday 4th September
Islington Town Hall
With Cllr Santiago Bell-Bradford
Exec. Inclusive Economy & Jobs
Inflation is eating away co-op reserves
Inflation is high, making it more difficult to meet future costs with current assets.
In short, holding cash is very expensive right now. If the inflation of the last decade continues, every £1 you have now will only be able to buy 75p worth of stuff.
If a repair costs £10,000 now, and you have £10k in reserve to do it, then in 10 years time you'd have to raise a levy of £2,500 to actually complete the repairs. If it's invested in inflation-linked bonds, then you'd be able to do it needing a levy at all!
How it works for existing co-ops
Roost has a very simple offer: we invest the reserves from housing co-operatives into new housing co-operatives.
We’re not asking for donations, we’re offering an investment where both new and old co-ops win.
In 5, or 10, or 25 years time, when you need to make the repairs, the money will be there and won’t have been eaten away by inflation.
How it works for new co-operators
A group comes to us and we tell them how much their buying budget is, based on how much rent they want to pay
The group finds a house in their budget
We buy it for them, and they move in!
Frequently asked questions
What if I need the money before the end of the bond term?
We offer investments in 1-year rolling bonds, where you can take any amount of the money out every year. Bonds are an illiquid investment.
Is Roost a co-operative?
Roost is a worker co-operative with three employees. Homes are owned by asset-locked entities (to prevent carpet-bagging), and are managed through a co-operative Tenant Management Organisation.
Why flatshares not family homes?
People living in flatshares are at a greater risk of exploitation. We pay a greater share of their income in rent, we are more likely to die in an accident, we have less tenure security, and we have less control of our homes. Rogue landlords are rife, like the Wembley Slumlord.
We’re paying such high rents that landlords make a huge return off of our rents. This allows us to offer inflation-linked bonds to co-ops, while paying less rent than we would otherwise -- and get all of the benefits of a co-operative home.
How is this different from Radical Routes?
Radical Route’s Clusters report was actually an inspiration for us!
Bonds in Roost co-ops are secured against the value of the house. If something goes wrong, the house can be sold and you can get your money back -- you get paid before we do.
Radical Routes works through loanstock. This is unsecured and the payment schedule is set by the co-op. They don’t have to pay it back if they are in financial difficulties.
Investing in Radical Routes is usually done for solidarity, to help other people to live in co-ops.
Investing in Roost is for the benefit of the existing co-op members, as it reduces the amount they will have to pay towards future repairs.
Why are you doing this?
We’ve had bad homes ourselves, and we’ve seen worse from Ben’s work preventing worker exploitation, Andrew’s work in homelessness, and John’s work in Citizen’s Advice.
And now we’ve got the skills to actually solve the problem.
6-9pm
Monday 4th September
Islington Town Hall
With Cllr Santiago Bell-Bradford
Exec. Inclusive Economy & Jobs