People before profit! Brighton Co-ops

Brighton is known nationally as a hot spot of co-ops and their history goes back a long way right to the very start of the co-operative movement. In 1828 The Brighton Co-operative Benevolent Fund Association, based on the communal ideas of social pioneer Robert Owen, was formed on 1 January 1828 and opened a shop […]

Moving in Thoughts

‘’Can we paint the walls?’’ asked my housemate whilst looking at magnolia walls graced with multiple marks, stains and chipped paint. ‘’No’’ answered the estate agent with a non-negotiable face. It was fairly clear from that moment where we stood as tenants; mere temporary inhabitors of a building, customers, pieces in the (highly profitable) chess […]

SEASALT Summer 2018 updates

In the hottest summer in years and even with many students going home for the summer SEASALT Housing Co-operative have been busy getting everything ready for Freshers whilst simultaneously putting an offer in on a former 15 bed care home. Being in Brighton has also made for some great meeting venues. “Heatwave summer! SEASALT Housing Co-operative meeting […]

Trip to LILAC Co-Housing, July 2018

On another super sunny July morning a group of us from various projects in Brighton thanks to Brighton and Hove Community Land Trust travelled up to Bramley, near Leeds to check out the LILAC co-housing project. (Low Impact Living Affordable Community). Interestingly I went to a meeting about LILAC back in 2008 when I was studying […]

Trip to Birmingham Student Housing Co-op

In 2014 a group of students in Birmingham successfully set up the first student housing co-op in the UK. To gain more of an insight into what living in a student housing co-op is really like, and to gather information into how its run, a group from SEASALT went to visit for a weekend. It […]

Here’s our progress so far!

A great start to the first student led housing co-op in Sussex! We’ve recruited a core team of 7 student volunteers including Society & Citizenship Sabbatical Officer (and now our Secretary for the Housing Co-op!) & Ethnic Minorities Officer and been meeting every Thursday this term. There’s lots to do but it’s an incredibly supportive environment, […]

The journey begins!

We set up S.E.A.S.A.L.T Housing Co-operative (South EAst Students Autonomously Living Together) in Spring 2018 as a group of Sussex students to create affordable, high quality, fit for purpose housing specifically to meet the needs of students. A housing co-operative is a property owned and managed by its residents, putting an end to unresponsive landlords, […]