The National Trust embraces the values of co-operation, and if the organisation was set up today it would be a co-op, according to Dame Fiona Reynolds.

Michael Stephenson, General Secretary of the Co-operative Party, said the coalition’s Big Society announcement was a betrayal of co-operative values.

Karen Froggatt, the Co-operative Group’s National Democratic Services Manager, stressed the importance of engaging with the membership when she updated delegates on the work of the Membership Strategy Review Group established in 2008.