Leading UK co-operatives are calling on all political parties to commit to co-operative growth at the next general election.
Co-ordinated by sector apex Co-operatives UK, the Everybody’s Business campaign has been signed by the leaders of a number of co-ops – including the Co-op Group and independent retail societies Central, Midcounties, Lincolnshire, Scotmid, East of England, Chelmsford Star, Southern, Heart of England and Radstock.
It also has the backing of Greenwich Leisure, the Wine Society, HF Holidays, Unicorn Grocery, Edinburgh Bicycle Co-operative, the National Merchants’ Buying Society, Delta T, Carbon Co-op , Workers.coop and Dulas.
The campaign has four policy priorities from parties when they set out their manifestoes in the next general election, which must be held by January 2025.
They are:
- Unlock options for co-operatives to raise more capital from investors and communities – including legislative reform, tax reform and action by the British Business Bank
- Remove unnecessary barriers to co-operation – including improving co-operative law and regulation and making competition enforcement more supportive of desirable economic co-operation
- Accelerate the proliferation of replicable co-operative solutions in broken systems like social care, energy, housing, data and culture – including by supporting secondary co-operative networks and other specialist intermediaries, and by removing barriers in sector-specific policy
- Ensure communities, workers, entrepreneurs and businesses are supported to explore and adopt co-operative options for realising their aspirations – by creating new legal rights for workers and communities to bid for businesses and business assets at critical junctures, and resourcing local co-operative development
“We are democratic businesses with purpose beyond profit, sharing power and wealth across the economy, from farming to retail and renewable energy to manufacturing,” says the electjon call. “We are common endeavours, proving that people achieve more together than they do alone.
“We call on all political parties who share our values of democracy, self-help and solidarity to commit to co-operative growth at the next general election. If you unleash our potential, we will deliver.”
The Everybody’s Business campaign argues that the “rapid development of the UK’s co-operative economy will be instrumental in delivering inclusive, responsible, wellbeing-enhancing growth”.
This can be done through the movement’s ‘six offers’ identified in the campaign.
- Brilliant businesses: more resilient, responsible, ambitious and effective businesses
- A stake and a say: sharing power and wealth through day-to-day business
- Making work pay: more rewarding, empowering, wellbeing-enhancing livelihoods
- Thriving communities everywhere: from inner cities to remote islands
- A just transition: a national effort to reach net zero, powered by mutuality and community
- Fixing broken systems: powerful innovations to fix broken systems like social care, data and housing
“Business as usual is failing and wrecking the planet in the process,” the campaign adds. “For more than a century, we have pioneered a better way of doing business and serving communities. While we are still something of a ‘best-kept-secret’ in the UK, we are growing in number and already punch above our weight.
“Globally co-operatives are a significant force, offering genuine alternatives to corporate myopia, knee-jerk government, trickledown philanthropy and passive consumerism. The UK needs to be part of this.”
