Welsh co-op development agency Cwmpas is urging the devolved government to invest in a development hub for the sector.
In a blog on the agency’s website, director of enterprise Glenn Bowen called for “a proactive, place-based, and market-shaping initiative that can create the conditions for larger-scale co-operatives to emerge, grow, and thrive”.
The plea comes as Wales prepares for its Senedd elections, against a challenging backdrop – with Bowen noting that “productivity is too low, poverty and precarity are too high, and the need to secure a just transition is evident”.
He added: “Investing in economic development is essential – and co-operative models are vital to ensuring sustainable and inclusive prosperity.”
Bowen highlighted existing projects from the government, including Social Business Wales, where Cwmpas is a delivery partner. “But,” he said, “if we are to harness the full economic and social potential of the co-operative sector, as we believe we should, it’s vital that a targeted intervention is in place to support the growth and scale required.”
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He said there is a need for co-op across sectors including housing retrofits, freelance artists and social care. But with Social Business Wales running at capacity, he warned: “Without the right infrastructure and resource to develop larger-scale opportunities, we risk missing out on the kind of economic transformation Wales urgently needs.
“To achieve the co-operative growth we believe is necessary, we can no longer wait for individuals and communities to bring forward transformative ideas. We need a greater number of large-scale co-operatives – capable of creating good jobs, building resilient supply chains, and delivering foundational services at scale – and we need to invest in the proactive development of these opportunities.
“This means putting in place capacity not just to respond to demand, but to shape and grow it.”
Bowen said the hub should work alongside existing initiatives rather than replace them, and should egnage with anchor institutions like public bodies and universities on procurement to drive community wealth building.
Other functions it could perform, he said, include creating a team of co-op development officers to work with communities; providing policy guidance to improve regulation; working with the public sector to set up new worker co-operatives; training entrepreneur co-op champions within further and higher education; and working at national level to identify key sectors/ geographies for targeted co-operative development, aligned to economic and tackling poverty strategies.
“We know this approach works because we have done it before,” added Bowen. “With the support of targeted investment in market development delivered by Cwmpas, Wales has successfully doubled the number of employee-owned businesses since 2021 – achieved two years ahead of schedule.”
