Our initial thoughts: Call for evidence on business support for co-operatives and non-financial mutuals
Resource
We're asking our members to feed into our sector wide response to the Department for Business and Trade's (DBT) call for evidence on how to best support the growth of our sector. Read our initial thoughts on this consultation.
This document shares our initial thoughts at the start of the consultation process on some
key questions. We are keen to hear from members on this, to help us develop our response.
Please email comments to [email protected] by Friday 9 January 2026.
Our evidence
The key evidence we are drawing on includes the extensive consultation we have done with
members in 2024 and Summer 2025, our System reboot process to collate issues co-operatives face, insights gained from advising and supporting hundreds of co-operatives
every year, our Co-operative Economy dataset, and the following sources: Co-operative and Mutual Economy report; Policy Plan for Co-operative Growth; Harnessing the mutual
sector's potential for growth; Exploring the Potential of the Employee Ownership Business
Model; Understanding a maturing community shares market; Community shares report 2023: Communities doing it for themselves; Scottish co-operatives consultation results 2022.
If there is evidence you think we and the sector should draw on in our response to
government, please email it to [email protected].
