Wales' new tenant-run community mutual model for housing has been given the green light by communities minister Edwina Hart.
She said the model, an alternative to stock transfer, would help the achievement of the Welsh housing quality standard by 2012.

Under the model, ownership of a council's housing would be transferred to a tenant organisation, which would have the status of a housing association.

The Welsh Federation of Housing Associations, which helped to develop the model, said the mutual approach would offer membership to all tenants and so ensure that ownership of homes rests primarily with those who live in them.

Boards of mutual housing organisations would be comprised of elected tenants, local authority nominees, and representatives of local businesses and community organisations.

The latter would provide specialist skills in a similar way to voluntary board members in England.

Peter Hunt, director of Mutuo – a think tank that developed the mutual model – said that it was based on the original concept of building societies.

"As the state continues inexorably to divest itself of direct responsibility for public services, the mutual sector movement can provide a framework and an opportunity for individuals to play a larger part in controlling their own lives," he said.

The Welsh Federation of Housing Associations and the Council of Mortgage Lenders Cymru said they were not worried by the prospect of boards with tenant majorities.

Federation director Howard John said that raising the capacity of communities to manage their own affairs was the best way of promoting good practice.

CML Cymru's senior policy advisor, Andrew Haywood, warned that he would want to see proper arrangements in place to handle tenants' potential conflict of interest, such as rent levels and modernisation programmes.

l The National Assembly for Wales has announced £1.36m of funding under the social housing management grant programme.

The money will go to projects on customer-centred letting, pilot housing marketing initiatives in unpopular areas and tenant participation.