Your editorial on housing (31 July) rightly calls for changing the situation for private landlords. To improve the housing stock and tackle inequalities, the answer is surely to follow the example of cities such as Zurich and Copenhagen, and promote co-operatives and cohousing. This switch could be achieved by regulating rented properties in high demand areas, insisting that they are properly insulated, and abolishing VAT on refurbishment.
At the same time, banks and building societies should be incentivised to support co-operative enterprise, so that they are not discriminated against. By learning from how Switzerland and Denmark have prospered over the last 40 years, the UK could even secure some benefits from Brexit.
Dr Nicholas Falk
Executive director, the Urbed Trust
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