Never have you seen a more satisfied group of people than our cohousing residents yesterday after a day of working together to regroup after the summer and prepare for winter.

Last week we walked around our 8.5 acre site together and prepared a list of jobs. Some are urgent, some not so, and some will continue to bounce along in and out of the long grass. With this list in mind, yesterday people put their different skills into action…

• Barley straw added in to treat non-potable water reservoir
• Chicken shed moved
• Angle grinding of an old axle to prepare for recycling
• Hotbox composter emptied and refilled
• Pallets in place ready to construct into new compost bins
• Donkey manure ready to mulch
• Digging of beds (couch grass means no-dig methods are no go so far)
• Sheep sorted into different paddocks, ready for the ram later in the year
• Hay moved to winter storage

Shared space means shared responsibility

The definition of cohousing is that there is an element of shared space. At Hockerton Housing Project each household owns its own house and garden, but with that comes the benefit of shared access to 8.5 acres land, income from the onsite business and the use of facilities including renewable energy systems and various ponds and lakes. Not forgetting the zip wire, treehouse and pizza oven! To manage all this, each house has a commitment, set out in the original planning permission and bound in a 999 year lease, to undertake a certain amount of hours work on the Project. Visitors on our tours are often taken aback by the idea of such a formal commitment but, as the work is flexible in terms of content and timing, it quickly becomes a way of life.

Flexible working

Some of the work is paid, where undertaken for our trading business, and the rest is compensated by a supply of fruit, vegetables, eggs, meat and access to the land. All of it is tracked so we all do our fair share. Those working full-time elsewhere may take on the weekend jobs of public tours or evening jobs of managing the website and tour administration. Others may have ideas that they can develop as part of the business: our current projects include R&D for a new form of renewable energy generation with a local university, building performance monitoring on behalf of a housing association, asset management of wind turbines for community energy groups and farmers, and our ongoing range of tours and workshops to develop sustainability knowledge and skills.

Such flexibility, and a decent pay rate, means it can work well for people of all ages, including those who want to cut back on full-time work. The activities suit a range of interests and personalities, and stages of life such as those in the early days of retirement or people who want to continue working whilst also caring for young children, and for those looking to develop new skills, or apply existing ones, in the field of sustainability.

Where there is a will…

The need to cooperate underpins this cohousing approach to managing shared land and a shared business. Plans need to reflect shared needs and values, whilst also taking into account individuals’ skills, time and interests. If people had neither the time nor the inclination to act, the business or use of the land would not develop as intended. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. And there’s definitely a Hockerton will, and way, to develop… sustainably of course.