Co-op News (August 2019)

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RETAIL Sheffield Co-op Group store brings back milk in glass bottles A Co-op Group store in Sheffield is bringing back the glass milk bottle in response to demand from customers and the war on plastic. The Ecclesall Road store is selling glass pint bottles from local farm Our Cow Molly, four miles away. Customers can return the bottles to the shop to be re-used by the dairy. Store manager Pete Cooper says the glass bottles are proving to be a hit – and he’s planning on increasing his order to meet demand. Mr Cooper said: “We’re the first Co-op store in the country to sell milk in glass bottles and we believe we’re the first supermarket in the country to do so too. “It fits in with the Co-op’s ethos as an environmentally friendly company keen to do what it can to reduce plastic waste. And the response shows just how close the issue is to people’s hearts. It’s also great to be supporting a local farm only a few miles away.” Our Cow Molly already supplies a local convenience store with milk in glass bottles – where customers get a discount on their next pint when returning their used bottles. Other stores in the city are now planning to follow suit. Director of Our Cow Molly, Eddie Andrew, said: “It’s great that the Co-op has become the first major supermarket in the UK to listen to environmentally conscious consumers asking for milk in glass bottles, and to give them what they want. We’re really proud we’ve been able to get our milk on the shelves there and help reduce plastic waste.” According to recent research, a glass bottle needs to used at least 13 times before becoming better for the environment than a plastic one. Mr Andrew said this was easily the case with the bottles it p Ecclesall Road Co-op store manager Pete Cooper (left) with Our Cow Molly’s Eddie Andrew (Image: Our Cow Molly) delivers, some of which he claimed have been in circulation for 20 years. ECONOMY Community-owned assets contribute £220m a year to England’s economy New research shows that England’s 6,300 community-owned assets contribute nearly £220m to the economy every year. The Our Assets, Our Future report is written by researchers from the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) at Sheffield Hallam University and the Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR). The team interviewed eight funders and support organisations, conducted an online and postal survey of potential community asset organisations, and made case studies of 27 assets in community ownership in five local authority areas. p The Kings Head, a community owned pub in Pebmarsh (Photo: the Plunkett Foundation) They found that, despite limited resources, three quarters of communityowned assets say they are in good financial health. The majority of provided a ‘micro’ (32%) or ‘small’ (48%) revenue of less than £100,000. And the sector is growing, with nearly a third of its assets coming into community ownership in the last decade. Communityowned assets are also pumping nearly £150m a year of spending directly into the local communities where they are based. But one in five community assets made an operating loss of 10% or more of revenue in the last financial year. Poorer areas are less likely to have community-owned assets, with the most deprived 30% of neighbourhoods containing just 18% of assets. Rural areas tend to have higher numbers of assets in community ownership – with the exception of some urban areas, particularly Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Southwark. The authors of the report believe the trend shows the importance of a supportive environment. The cost of maintenance was the most common factor cited for the financial health of community assets in the last three years, at 46%, with other barriers including the scale of expenses, poor revenue, lack of a full volunteer base and limited access to grant funding. Ian Wilson, lead author and principal research fellow from the CRESR, said: “Although 31% of these assets are in excellent financial health, the sector needs more financial support in order to fulfil its economic potential.” The report says it should be easier to transfer assets into community ownership, calls for more business planning and general support for the sector, and wants more reliable access to cheap finance. The research was commissioned by Power to Change and the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government. Vidhya Alakeson, chief executive of Power to Change, said: “When communities directly own land and buildings, they can start to meet the real needs of people in their area. That’s why we need concerted action from policymakers at all levels to support community ownership.” 6 | AUGUST 2019
RETAIL GMB union slams John Lewis transfer of maintenance staff to US outsourcer Employee-owned John Lewis Partnership has restructured its maintenance functions, transferring nearly 300 staff members to US-based outsourcer CBRE. The decision, put into action on 1 July, affected around 360 maintenance employees across the organisation’s two brands, John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners. Some retired, took redundancy or resigned while others have been redeployed to work in other areas of the Partnership. The 278 staff who moved to the new provider did so under Tupe regulations – but GMB, the trade union that represents the staff, warned the move would result in wage cuts for employees. The union says staff are “deeply unhappy” about the move and estimates employees could be thousands of pounds a year worse off through the loss of their benefits as employee-owners. Nikki Dancey, GMB regional organiser in Berkshire, said: “CBRE are currently refusing to honour the defined benefit pension scheme, the store discounts, bonuses and other employee benefits that workers have received from John Lewis.” She said staff have to either take redundancy or do the same work for lower overall pay, terms and conditions. “Many members tell us how John Lewis used to be a great company to work for, but that now their pay, terms and conditions, health and safety, and respect for the workforce is being steadily degraded,” said Ms Dancey. “Staff no longer feel valued by John Lewis and Waitrose, and the company branding of being a ‘co-op’ and workers being ‘partners’ are fast becoming a bad joke for many.” She confirmed the GMB would support the staff through the transition and represent them as future CBRE employees. She hopes that in the long term the Partnership bring them back in house. The GMB added that the trade union had “reason to believe that the transport, drivers and logistics employees may be the next ‘partners’ that the directors wish to ‘divorce’” – a move which has been denied by the Partnership. A John Lewis Partnership spokeswoman said the move to single maintenance provider would “create a Partnershipwide maintenance function leading to improved service levels while maintaining our high standards of health and safety [...] We have been working hard with CBRE to ensure Partners receive beneficial transfer terms”. ENERGY BEIS allocates £10m to green community energy projects The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has announced changes to the Rural Community Energy Fund, which will provide £10m to support green community energy in the UK. The funding is aimed at rural sports clubs, schools and churches looking to power their buildings with clean electricity, cut their bills and reduce emissions. New community projects – including co-ops – can apply for feasibility grants of up to £40,000 for green initiatives, including solar battery storage, wind, hydro and geothermal heat projects. Viable proposals will also be considered for further grants of up to £100,000 for business development and planning applications. Mark Billsborough, head of trading and renewables for Co-op Energy, which purchases energy from 79 community energy sites across the country, said: “We welcome any additional funding in this area – but there is much more that government can do to support successful community energy projects.” He said the sector had been hit by the closure of the Feed-in-Tariff, prohibitive planning rules and weak obligations on suppliers to pay fair prices for electricity. “We would call for the government to go further still,” he added, “and take a more strategic approach to supporting this sector, starting with reinstating social investment tax relief for community energy schemes as soon as possible.” Emma Bridge, chief executive of Community Energy England, welcomed the announcement but said: “the government has yet to demonstrate how it will ensure community groups receive a fair market rate when it sells energy back to the grid, and this scheme does nothing to support groups in more urban areas. “We call on the government to reinstate Social Investment Tax Relief for those who are willing to invest in community energy – helping local groups generate their own green energy, supporting the transition to a decentralised smart energy system and lowering energy bills.” AUGUST 2019 | 7
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