Ahead of the 2024 UK election, Labour committed to “doubling the co-op and mutual economy”. But those working on the frontline of co-op development want to know how this will happen in practice. What is being measured? Who is going to make this doubling happen? And how will it be resourced?
At the 2025 Future Co-ops Conference – titled ‘The Trouble with Double’ – over 100 co-op development workers gathered at Central Co-op’s Business Support Centre in Lichfield to discuss exactly this. Who should be driving the agenda? it asked. And can we create a legacy that outlasts a change in government?
One issue, said Jo White, CEO of conference organisers Co-op Futures, is that “so far a lot of the conversations around ‘doubling’ have been top-down from the government, rather than involving grassroots organisations or development workers”. In an opening discussion hosted by Co-op News editor Rebecca Harvey, panellists looked at the potential of doubling the size of the co-operative economy from regional and local perspectives, highlighting the need for empowering local communities, addressing challenges like empty shops, and leveraging better communication.
Baggy Shanker, Labour/Co-op MP for Derby South, spoke about the potential of co-operatives to revitalise city centres and addressing empty shops. But, he added, there was a need to first identify barriers and challenges and use expert support to ensure the success of new co-operatives. Collaboration with the right people is vital, too, he added.
“Every topic [at the conference] ultimately comes back to the people who are doing those actions. Getting people working together, accepting the most important asset is our people, allowing time for discussions, and then taking these ideas and delivering them is where we’ll see results.
“And this is what co-ops do better than anybody because it all comes back to people.”
Sue Woodward, Labour/Co-op councillor on Burntwood Town Council and the leader of the opposition at Lichfield District Council, shared examples of the strong community spirit in Lichfield District and Burntwood, but added that grassroots efforts and educational programs needed better support. She also spoke about the gap between aspirations and making co-operatives happen and the need for more horizontal communication within the co-op movement. “We need to start talking to each other, perhaps more effectively than we do at the moment,” she said.
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Stewart Holroyd sits on of the board of Student Co-op Homes, having previously lived in a student housing co-op, and is also a caseworker for a Labour MP. He believes there is huge potential for co-ops, especially with 42 Labour Co-op MPs in power, but shared frustration around the current challenges in setting up co-ops. “But,” he added, “we’ve got a unique opportunity now, and I think it’s up to each of us to grasp that opportunity. We need to make sure co-operation is part of the national conversation.”
Ahead of a day of workshops, co-op business advisor Alex Bird gave an overview of the state of co-ops compared with Europe and the rest of the world, and emphasised how a better finance system and more sympathetic legal framework would make it easier to set up co-ops – as would encouraging more co-op clusters: “Where you see co-ops together, you see more co-ops,” he said.
Community interest companies have it easier, he added. Bearing in mind there are around 9,000 co-ops in the UK, “last year 7,000 CICs were registered – if that was co-ops we’d have cracked it”.
Another issue, Bird said, is the lack of data around co-ops. Getting up-to-date figures and statistics on co-ops is hard, particularly when “many only analyse the top 300 [like the ICA’s World Cooperative Monitor] and there are so many hidden co-operatives – co-ops that don’t think they’re co-ops!”
The solution, he believes, is more localism. “Co-op success in the past came from the fact that co-op development agencies were built into local authorities and were part of economic development departments.
“Most business advisers now either don’t know about co-ops or put people off them: ‘co-ops are for people with stripy jumpers and sandals, not for normal people’. We need to get into professional bodies and teach how to do it properly.
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“And it can be done. Two thirds of wine in France and 98% of Parmesan cheese in Italy is made by co-ops – it’s seen as a standard way of doing business.”
Jackie Thomasen, chief executive of the Co-op College, highlighted the lack of co-op education in business schools and the need to mainstream co-ops on the curriculum, and Pete Westall, chief values officer at Midcounties Co-op – which has supported Co-op Futures since 2000 – shared how organisations can also use ‘soft’ influence to share ideas about co-ops in more traditional spaces.
“Ownership is intrinsically linked to outcomes,” he reminded the room, describing the organisation’s work with the new International Co-operative Development Fund, the Bright Future co-op (which works with survivors of modern slavery) and Midcounties’ 2022 pledge to support the development of 50 new co-ops.
The conference featured a series of practical workshops, to explore and agree on four outcomes and asks across four different areas.
“The conversation around ‘doubling’ the co-operative economy risks becoming a numbers game” said Jo White, leading the More, Bigger, or Better? session.
“Yes the survival rate for co-ops is better than for traditional businesses, but while we’re busy focusing on creating lots of new start-up co-ops, what’s happening to the existing ones?”
Delegates discussed potential metrics for ‘doubling’ (organisations, turnover, members, employees, proportion of GDP, public knowledge), whether all of these should be doubled, and if it mattered at all.
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Participants agreed that regardless of numbers, the aim should be for co-ops to be seen as not niche, but part of the general conversation – but for that to happen there needs to be mechanisms for them to grow and thrive, underpinned by principle 6 (co-operation among co-operatives), deeper member engagement, and an increased awareness by the general public and political decision-makers. Ensuring co-ops are positioned within the broader growth agenda is vital, said one delegate: “The aim is not to replace profitable businesses but to use the co-op model to save jobs and businesses”.
Proposed actions included mentoring programmes (encouraging experienced co-ops to guide newer ones), building sector-specific networks, developing secondary co-ops that support other co-op businesses and improving funding models to ensure appropriate financial support for growth and development.
Although the Co-op Party now has a record number of representatives in parliament, political support for co-operatives needs to be strengthened across government if the sector is to grow. A workshop on political levers explored ideas around identifying and showcasing case studies of successful co-ops, organising visits to local (and scalable) and international (and inspirational) co-ops for MPs, councillors, and officials, engaging town and parish councils through presentations and support offers
One priority highlighted during the conference was the need to establish and engage with a cross-party group on co-operatives and mutuals. There are currently two all-party political groups (APPGs) covering the sector: the newly convened APPG on Mutuals (chaired by Andrew Pakes) and the APPG on Social, Co-operative and Mutual Economy, chaired by Patrick Hurley.
A perennial challenge for co-ops is how to engage young people. How do we bring co-ops up to date, make them relevant to young people, and successfully embed them back into our culture and economy?
Delegates looked at current social movements – such as Extinction Rebellion and #MeToo – and the challenge of putting co-operatives at the front and centre of solutions for tackling contemporary issues. While disruptive protests were deemed unsuitable, there was agreement that digital awareness campaigns could be effective in engaging young people.
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This awareness issue also applied to education, and there was an agreed need to integrate co-op education into school and university curricula to ensure widespread understanding of the model. Utilising social media, and encouraging co-op influencers on platforms like TikTok could also help raise awareness, as could expanding housing co-ops, particularly student co-ops, which could be both an entry point into the movement and a solution to housing concerns.
The challenge to all this, however, is resourcing. Where are the experts, tools and money to be found to resource the doubling agenda? Delegates discussed investing in training programmes, and establishing regional or sector-specific co-operative development bodies, co-created with local authorities and supported by co-op development advisors.
Co-op-to-co-op resourcing was another option, encouraging retail societies to redirect charitable giving towards co-op development, or leveraging private investment through tax reliefs and the creation of a £300m listed investment trust to provide debt finance to co-ops, potentially underwritten by the government.
