Response to the autumn budget 2026: How to make growth good

It was disappointing not to see a mention of co-operatives in the Budget speech, given the alignment of good growth and the ambition to double the size of the sector as co-operatives can play a vital role in all this, writes James Wright, Policy and Development Lead at Co-operatives UK.

Many of today’s Budget measures, on business finance, tax, regulation and local development, could enable co-operative growth. 

We look forward to working with the government’s new Co-operatives and Mutuals Champion, Andrew Pakes MP, also announced today, on business support, access to capital, legislation, tax and significant opportunities in agriculture, housing, people-centred services, digital and high streets.

We invite government to work with us, to ensure its latest measures cater to the distinctive features of our members, and utilise their particular strengths. For example:

• The additional funds for the British Business Bank are great. Some of this money should be used in schemes that cater to the distinctive features of co-operatives and mutuals
• The Young Entrepreneurs Allowance Pilot could be brilliant, but there should be a variant for young co-operative founders
• Efforts to reduce regulatory burdens for business, should include action for co-operatives, not least by modernising co-operative law 
• Today’s business rates measures will ease burden on the thousands of co-operatives operating smaller premises, including shops, pubs and social clubs. But more may be needed to help keep some critical community services open. And attention now turns to Scotland, where less has been done to date to relieve the burden
• The Sovereign AI Fund and Local AI Partnerships can utilise emergent co-operative models for digital infrastructure, which enable co-investment, reduce overbuild and increase local accountability and benefit 
• More funding and powers announced for strategic authorities in England create additional opportunities for local policy to enable co-operative growth. The £10m Co-operative Development Programme being distributed to strategic authorities (announced 25 September) will be a game-changer here
• Investment and reform in the national grid should be good news for community energy schemes 
• The new Founder’s Relief sounds interesting, but how can we ensure it does not penalise people who start and scale as a co-operative? 

We also look forward to government’s response to its recent Call for Evidence on Co-operative Business Support, which we hope will address these priorities.