Blog

A growing number of businesses in the UK are going bust. Two years of lost income, uncertainty, stress, ballooning debt and now rising costs, may be taking their toll.  

When Michael Gove stood at the dispatch box and said government’s flagship Levelling Up White Paper was a strategy “to shift wealth and power decisively towards working people” I had to stop and…

Anthony Collins Solicitors outline what blockchain is, and how and why co-operatives might start to incorporate blockchain into their governance and operations.

A mountainous two-day hike into the Knoydart peninsula, on the west coast of Scotland, takes you to one of the most remote communities in the UK – and the mainland’s most remote pub (the Guinness…

Scottish government is now committed to supporting co-ops in its policy programme. This provides a massive opportunity to unlock the huge potential for co-ops in Scotland and follows a successful…

Across the UK politicians from a range of parties have just been elected with commitments to support co-ops and a more democratic economy. We are already reaching out to offer our help, so politicians…

Community ownership has been one of the biggest democratising forces in our economy, from farming to football. The UK government’s new Community Ownership Fund could help spread the benefits further,…

At the rate we’re going, co-ops will be a powerful democratising force in the economy around the year 2120. But we can't wait 100 years. To spread the benefits of economic democracy quickly and at…

Stella Creasy MP has tabled an amendment to the Financial Services Bill, aimed at making it easier to establish a mutual bank in the UK. Government should accept this amendment, because local mutual…

Tomorrow (25 November) the Chancellor will publish UK government’s spending plans for 2021-22. The stakes could not be higher. Job losses are at their highest since 2009, millions face poverty and…

Less than 10 years ago, community shares were almost unheard of. Yet since 2012, £155 million has been raised by 104,203 people supporting more than 440 vital businesses – an impressive 92% of which…

Co-operatives UK has published four ‘offers’ for building back better, aimed at a government worried about jobs and everyone working for a more just and sustainable future. 

It looks like we’re heading into a deep economic and social crisis. Many livelihoods and businesses will be destroyed. But business as usual was already an unfolding catastrophe; for the planet if not…

For six weeks we have been fighting for co-ops to get the help they need to survive this pandemic. This includes lobbying the UK government to include co-operative and community benefit societies in…

Budget 2020 includes a very welcome announcement for private rental housing co‑ops. They will no longer have to pay punitive taxes aimed at deterring the corrupt practice known as ‘property…