Encouraging co-operatives as a lifeline for local people and local economies across the UK

Listen to the winning Co-operative Debate at Co-operatives 2010, proposed by Wooldale Co-operative Society and Anglia Regional Co-operative Society, and read the original debate proposal.

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The subject was also spoken to by Tony Gudgeon, Jim Brown, Bob Cannell, Mervyn Eastman, and Dave Roberts.

Encouraging co-operatives as a lifeline for local people and local economies across the UK

Proposed by Wooldale Co-operative Society and Anglia Regional Co-operative Society

Today’s global economy, based on the free movement of capital, the exclusion of costs of pollution and the encouragement of enterprises without roots or responsibility, has tended to strip away local economic activity in favour of distant and centralised solutions.

Local communities, from inner city residents and urban housing estates through to rural villages and islands, have lost out as a result and, in some cases, their sustainability is under threat. Co-operatives, often small and independent, provide vital services to local communities and help to underpin local economies. These range from community retail through to local transport, banking, pubs, sport, healthcare, social services and recycling.

To succeed in tough economic conditions, it helps to use the co-operative business model, as people can work together and keep ownership local. But, beyond the welcome work that is already happening, there is a need to tap into the skills and support of the wider co-operative movement.

It is time to take a strategic approach to support this new co-operative localism.

1. Established co-operatives have a wealth of experience about every aspect of running a successful business. They have the knowledge and skills that could prove vital to the survival of community co-operatives close to them.
2. Providing practical support is in line with co-operative values of self-help, solidarity and social responsibility.
3. There can be new ways of facilitating these links, for example through more systematic support and resources for co-operative development.
4. There are opportunities to explore new ways for co-operatives to act at scale, for example through assisted terms on trading, clusters of rural co-operatives sharing overheads, the development of model contracts for work with the public sector or through asset-based models such as the use of property and the uptake of community shares.
5. There is a need to celebrate what is already happening with co operatives in local communities, their innovations, which could inform the learning of larger societies, their track record of service to communities and their contribution to local sustainability.

The Co-operative Debate took place as part of Co-operatives 2010 as part of the first ever Co-operatives Fortnight.