December 2022 digital edition

DECEMBER 2022 

ELA BHATT: 

A CO-OPERATIVE 

LIFE WELL-LIVED 

Plus … The search for 

the next Co-op Group MND 

... Leading Lives: employeeownership 

at the heart 

of social care ... Crosscollaboation: 

Caribbean 

Credit Union Governance 

ISSN 0009-9821 

770009 982010 

01 

£4.20 

www.thenews.coop 

Ela Bhatt ~ 1933-2022

food BANK 

Advent Calendar 

Donate in store or collect at home and help support 

your local food bank over the festive period. 

1Donate 

your 

dividend 

2 

Wash 

powder 

3 

Gravy & 

Sauces 

Pasta 

4 5 6 7 

Tinned 

tomatoes 

Rice 

Toiletries 

8 9 10 11 

Biscuits 

Cereal 

12 

13 

16 

Sanitary products 

14 

17 

19 20 21 

Tinned 

potatoes 

22 23 24 

Longlife 

milk 

Tea 

bags 

Tinned 

fruit 

Tinned 

fish 

Tinned/packed 

desserts 

Tinned meat 

Give a little something this Christmas... 

#GiveALittleSomething 

Coffee 

Tinned vegetables 

Squash 

15 

Jam & spreads 

Longlife 

fruit 

juice 

Pet food 

Cooking 

sauces 

18

A month of celebration, learning 

and knowledge exchange 

CONNECTING, CHAMPIONING AND 

CHALLENGING THE GLOBAL CO-OP 

MOVEMENT SINCE 1871 

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Manchester M60 0AS 

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Secretary: Richard Bickle 

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It’s been another month packed with co-op events and celebrations, marking 

some fantastic milestones across our movement. 2022 is the centenary year 

of the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (p30-31) 

and the International Cooperative Banking Association (p34-36), who met in 

Rome and Brussels respectively to celebrate the past and look to the future. 

The Co-operative Councils Innovation Network celebrated its first 10 years by 

asking how local councils can embed grassroots co-op ideas in communities 

(p28-29) – and Paul Gosling looks back at four decades of Leicester’s Cooperative 

And Social Enterprise (CASE) development agency (p42-43). “We 

would not have survived if we were not a co-operative,” Dorothy Francis, 

co-director, said at the anniversary celebration. “It gives us a shared vision 

and understanding and means we pull together.” 

This shared vision is hugely important to Leading Lives too – an employeeowned 

social care co-op in Suffolk which span out of the local authority 10 

years ago (p46-47). “For us it’s all about co-production – about shifting our 

power base, about finding solutions to what people need,” says Boo Dendy, 

vice-chair. 

Collaboration is also in evidence in the credit union movement, with a new 

partnership between Swoboda (the British and Irish credit union research 

centre) and the Caribbean Confederation of Credit Unions, to strengthen 

credit union governance in the region. And there was more knowledge 

exchange at the World Coop Management conference in Brazil (p32-33), and 

co-op learning at Co-operatives UK’s annual Practitioners Forum (p26-27). 

But this month has also been one of loss. Rochdale Boroughwide Housing 

has come under immense fire following the death of death in 2020 of twoyear-old 

Awaab Ishak, who lived in a mould infected flat managed by the 

mutual (p5-6). And the world is mourning the loss of Ela Bhatt, the Indian cooperative 

giant and ‘gentle revolutionary’ who founded the Self-Employed 

Women’s Association (SEWA) of India (p24-25). 

Also this issue we speak with Co-op Group member-nominated director 

Sarah McCarthy-Fry as the organisation searches for applicants for the 

2023 MND elections (p44-45) and start getting ready for Christmas with the 

second part of our co-op Christmas gift guide (p48-49). 

Wishing all our members and readers a very peaceful festive season, 

REBECCA HARVEY - EXECUTIVE EDITOR 

Co-operative News is printed using vegetable oil-based inks 

on 80% recycled paper (with 60% from post-consumer waste) 

with the remaining 20% produced from FSC or PEFC certified 

sources. It is made in a totally chlorine free process. 

DECEMBER 2022 | 3

ISSN 0009-9821 

9 770009 982010 

01 

THIS ISSUE 

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: 

Dorothy Francis celebrating 40 years of 

CASE (p42-43); COP27 and Fairtrade (p14); 

Osaro Otobo, deputy chair of the British 

Youth Council speaking at Co-operatives 

UK’s Practitioners Forum (p26-27); The 

World Coop Management conference in 

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (p32-33); Leading 

Lives social care co-op (p46-47) 

DECEMBER 2022 

ELA BHATT: 

A CO-OPERATIVE 

LIFE WELL-LIVED 

Plus … The search for 

the next Co-op Group MND 

... Leading Lives: employeeownership 

at the heart 

of social care ... Crosscollaboation: 

Caribbean 

Credit Union Governance 


£4.20 

Ela Bhatt ~ 1933-2022 

22-23 MEET: TIM COOMER 

Business development manager at 

Co-operative and Community Finance 

26-27 PRACTITIONERS FORUM 

Co-operatives UK’s annual event 

explored diversity – and supporting 

members and colleagues through crises 

28-29 CCIN 10TH ANNIVERSARY 

CONFERENCE 

How can local councils embed grassroots 

co-op ideas in communities? 

30-31 100 YEARS OF ICMIF 

The International Cooperative and Mutual 

Insurance Federation celebrated its 

centenary with global gathering in Rome 

32-33 WORLD CO-OP MANAGEMENT 

CONFERENCE, BRAZIL 

Rose Marley and Sarah Alldred report from 

Brazil’s WCM 2022 event 

gathering looked at how to serve members 

while surviving the storm 

40-41 CO-OPERATION AMONG CREDIT 

UNIONS 

A new partnership to strengthen credit 

union governance in the Caribbean 

42-43 MARKING 40 YEARS OF CASE 

Paul Gosling on four decades of 

Leicester’s Co-operative And Social 

Enterprise development agency 

44-45 THE SEARCH FOR NEW GROUP MND 

The Co-op Group is on the lookout for new 

member-nominated director 

46-47 EMPLOYEE-OWNED SOCIAL CARE 

Meet Leading Lives, a social care co-op 

owned by its employees 

48-49 CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE : PART 2 

Ethical giving this festive season 

COVER: Ela Bhatt, 1933-2022 

Tributes from around the world poured 

in following the death of Indian 

co-operative organiser and activist Ela 

Bhatt, founder of the Self Employed 

Women’s Association of India (SEWA) 

Read more: p24-25 

34-36 CENTENNIAL EVENT OF THE ICBA 

The International Cooperative Banking 

Association met in Brussels to look at its 

legacy and plans for the future. 

37-39 CREDIT UNIONS ON THE FRONTLINE 

The annual Swoboda credit union 

REGULARS 

5-13 UK news 

14-21 Global news 

24-25 Obituaries 

27 Letters 

50 Events 

4 | DECEMBER 2022

NEWS 

HOUSING 

Rochdale Boroughwide 

Housing loses £1m in 

funding as CEO resigns 

over child’s death 

Housing secretary Michael Gove has 

withdrawn £1m of funds from Rochdale 

Boroughwide Housing (RBH) as the outcry 

continues over the of death two-year-old 

Awaab Ishak in a mould-infected flat. 

The funding was part of the Affordable 

Housing Programme to build new housing. 

Gove said there would no extra funds for 

RBH until it “gets its act together” and 

warned other providers would face similar 

sanctions if they breach standards. 

A coroner’s inquest into Awaab’s death 

in 2020 has left the mutual in crisis. The 

leader of Rochdale Council has written to 

the government asking for properties run 

by RBH to be returned to its control, and 

the mutual’s board has dismissed chief 

executive, Gareth Swarbrick. 

Swarbrick had declared his intention to 

stay in the post but as protesters gathered 

outside Rochdale Council offices, the board 

withdrew its initial support for him. 

“Our original instincts were for Gareth to 

stay on to see the organisation through this 

difficult period and to make the necessary 

changes,” said the board in a statement on 

the RBH website, “but we all recognise that 

this is no longer tenable.” 

It has said it will appoint an interim CEO, 

but Cllr Neil Emmott, leader of Rochdale 

Council, has written to Gove asking that 

“the housing stock managed by RBH is 

returned to the control of the local authority 

alongside the required funding”. 

The barrister representing Awaab’s 

family, Christian Weaver, read a statement 

at the vigil, which said: “The family were 

deeply saddened that following this 

inquest, RBH did nothing but express their 

confidence in their chief executive Gareth 

Swarbrick, despite in the court room doing 

everything to indicate that significant 

changes would be made. 

“The fact that RBH’s chief executive had 

to be sacked as opposed to resigning, for 

the family speaks volumes. However, they 

find it wholly unacceptable that the board 

expressed confidence in him the first place. 

p Gareth Swarbrick posted a video statement apologising for the death and declaring his 

intention to stay in post, but was dismissed days later 

The family still feels that much more needs 

to be done and a further statement will be 

released in due course.” 

Awaab’s death has seen the tenant 

and employee co-owned mutual, which 

runs over 12,000 homes throughout the 

Rochdale area, mired in allegations of 

racism after it emerged it had blamed the 

mould on the family’s “lifestyle”. 

The Manchester Evening News criticised 

the increase in Swarbrick’s pay package, 

including pension contributions, from 

£144,000 a year to £185,000 from the end 

of March 2019 to April 2021 – the period 

surrounding Awaab’s death – and noted 

his failure to attend the inquest. 

Joanne Kearsley, senior coroner at 

Rochdale Coroner’s Court, recorded a 

narrative conclusion, stating that the 

mould, most likely the result of poor 

ventilation, was present in the bathroom 

and kitchen of the flat Awaab shared 

with his parents, Faisal Abdullah and 

Aisha Amin, and was first reported to 

RBH in 2017. 

“Awaab Ishak died as a result of a 

severe respiratory condition caused due to 

prolonged exposure to mould in his home 

environment,” said Kearsley. “Action to 

treat and prevent the mould was not taken. 

His condition led to respiratory arrest.” 

Kearsley noted that there was no 

evidence of complaints by the family to 

RBH about the mould between the initial 

complaint in 2017 and 2020. 

And she said that in June 2020, the family 

had instructed solicitors over the issue. 

“Due to policy, the impact of the 

commencement of a claim meant that any 

disrepairs found would not be undertaken 

until there had been an agreement from the 

claimant’s solicitors,” she wrote. “I heard 

evidence that this policy was not unique to 

RBH and was adopted by them following 

similar organisations who have this policy.” 

She also acknowledged that RBH had 

“learned many lessons” since the tragedy 

but added that the case should become 

“a defining moment for the housing 

sector in terms of increasing knowledge, 

increasing awareness and a deepening of 

understanding surrounding the issue of 

damp and mould”. 

After the hearing, lawyers for Awaab’s 

parents read a statement in which they 

accused RBH of failing for several years to 

treat the mould. 

“We cannot tell you how many health 

professionals we have cried in front of and 

Rochdale borough housing staff we have 

pleaded to expressing concern,” they said. 

They accused RBH of racial 

discrimination in the case, adding: “Stop 

providing unfair treatment to people 

coming from abroad who are refugees 

or asylum seekers. Stop housing people 

in homes you know are unfit for human 

habitation. We were left feeling absolutely 

worthless at the hands of RBH.” 

Following the case, the ombudsman 


has written to RBH with regard to “three 

complaints … which have also been 

assessed as high or medium risk”. 

The ombudsman’s team has been 

instructed to speed its investigations of 

these cases, using paragraph 12 of the 

Housing Ombudsman Scheme to “enable 

us to effectively gather any information 

required”. It will also investigate further 

“to establish if this complaint is indicative 

of wider failure within the landlord”. 

In its statement, the RBH board added: 

“The coroner noted that RBH had made 

changes as a result of the tragic death of 

Awaab. Under new leadership RBH will 

continue to embed these changes and 

continue to drive further improvements to 

our homes and to our communications with 

tenants. We are committed to sharing what 

we have learnt about the impact to health 

of damp, condensation and mould with the 

social housing sector, and to supporting 

sector wide changes. We will work with 

other agencies local and national and with 

central government in implementing the 

wider changes recommended to them by 

the coroner. 

“As an organisation we are deeply sorry 

for the death of Awaab and devastated that 

it happened in one of our homes. We must 

ensure this can never happen again.” 

Fallout for the co-op movement 

The news is a blow to the UK co-op 

movement, with RBH hailed as the UK’s 

first tenant and employee co-owned 

mutual housing society. 

It was launched with fanfare in 2011, 

with the time and date of the tenant vote 

for mutualisation organised for 8pm on 

21 December, to coincide exactly with the 

anniversary of the opening of the Rochdale 

Pioneers’ Toad Lane co-op store. 

The council leader at the time, Colin 

Lambert, welcomed the move, saying it 

“continues the ambitious, pioneering spirit 

of the 28 workers who set up the Toad Lane 

store and it’s an exciting development that 

will quite rightly take its place in our cooperative 

history”. 

RBH put itself forward as an example 

of co-operation, with Swarbrick telling 

Co-op News in 2020 – the year of Awaab’s 

death – that its initiatives on Covid-19 

stemmed from “tenants and employees 

as co-owners, giving people a sense of 

responsibility and working together”. 

Instead it now finds itself at the heart of a 

scandal, with the media seizing on reports 

by other tenants of mould in their flats. 

Asked by Sky, RBH said it had received 106 

formal complaints about damp or mould in 

their properties over the last year. 

Responding to the inquest, Rose Marley, 

CEO of sector apex Co-operatives UK, said: 

“The death of Awaab Ishak is incredibly 

sad and shocking – and the subsequent 

inquest findings distressed us all. We’ve 

written to RBH requesting – as a matter of 

urgency – detail in terms of how they’re 

addressing the findings of the inquest, with 

specific regard to governance and internal 

processes. The responses we receive will 

help us understand RBH’s support needs 

and next steps. 

“All co-ops are different, operating with 

different constitutions and governing rules 

– and of differing sizes across all sectors 

within the economy. Something was 

clearly broken in the case of RBH. Tenants 

were not being heard over a fundamental 

issue; of safe and habitable homes. Those 

failings have resulted in the most horrific 

of outcomes. That is why we have directly 

approached RBH over its governance and 

also why we’re reaching out to all our 

housing members to remind them of the 

steps required to ensure their governance 

is fit for purpose. The social housing sector, 

in particular, requires wholesale reform. 

But for co-operatives, the values and 

principles must be front and centre when it 

comes to change.” 

Blase Lambert, CEO of the Confederation 

of Co-operative Housing (CCH), said: 

“I am saddened by the tragic death of 

Awaab Ishak. CCH sends its condolences 

to his family. CCH supports fundamental 

change in the social housing sector to raise 

standards and protect the health and safety 

of all residents in their homes.” 

There has been ongoing debate in the 

co-op movement over the mutualisation of 

local authority services, with those on the 

left arguing it amounts to privatisation by 

the back door. 

And within the housing co-op sector 

there has been discussion – not specific 

to RBH – of the need for improvement on 

representation. There were side sessions 

at the recent CCH conference looking for 

ways to improve the representation of 

BAME and other minorities in the sector, 

and how to increase tenant participation at 

board level, with some co-ops struggling to 

attract candidates. 

Action urged on UK social housing 

The tragedy has put the spotlight on the 

country’s wider council and housing 

association stock, with the government 

demanding improvements to ensure there 

are no further mould-related deaths. 

RBH told the inquest of the difficulty 

of dealing with ageing housing stock, a 

common problem in the social housing 

sector which has faced several years of 

austerity measures. 

Last week, Fiona MacGregor, CEO of 

the Regulator of Social Housing, wrote 

to all UK social housing providers 

reminding them of “the responsibility 

of all registered providers to ensure 

that the homes they provide are well 

maintained and of a decent standard”. 

RBH says it has been taking action 

to identify and remedy problems in its 

own stock. These include visits to “every 

home in Freehold to carry out a survey 

of each flat to check for damp or mould 

issues”, which is being followed up with a 

£1.2m programme to install positive input 

ventilation units and extractor fans. The 

work is set to take 12 months, starting on 

5 December. 

The mutual says it has also improved 

its IT systems and processes, which the 

inquest heard had contributed to the 

problem, keeping some staff unaware of 

the state of the property. 

Employees are being given mandatory 

training and video tech is being rolled 

out to enhance communication with 

people who do not speak English as a first 

language. 

It added that is trialling tech including 

humidity smart meters and different types 

of ventilation to see what is most effective 

in different homes, and “will share these 

findings with the sector going forward”. 


RETAIL 

Central England Co-op announces rebrand using the ICA’s global marque 

Central England Co-op has changed its 

name to Central Co-op under a rebrand 

which reflects its “development and 

expansion” which has seen sales approach 

the £1bn milestone. 

The society says it is rolling out a 

“modern and fresh branding” which uses 

the International Cooperative Alliance’s 

global marque – already used by Scotmid, 

Midcounties, Co-operatives UK, Co-op 

Credit Union and Co-op News. 

CEO Debbie Robinson said: “We’re 

continuing our journey as we set our 

society up for future success. We’ve 

adopted the globally recognised marque 

of co-operation to show our solidarity 

with the wider co-operative movement as 

part of our society-wide rebrand. 

“Key to all of this is a refresh of our 

identity – we want to be modern, warm, 

relevant and inclusive so we can welcome 

the next generation of co-operators. 

“As we look to the future with our 

purpose of creating a sustainable society 

for all, we continue to invest in our society.” 

The rollout of the new branding is part 

of the society’s regeneration plan for more 

than food and funeral sites. 

In the last 18 months the society has 

opened nine new stores, and regenerated 

p CEO Debbie Robinson (Image: Co-operatives UK) and the new branding (inset) 

63 of its existing sites. Last month’s 

openings in Eastham and Sawbridgeworth 

are the first food stores with the new look, 

alongside the revamped Kettering funeral 

home in Northamptonshire. 

Central says the rebrand complements 

its campaigns on the value and the 

benefits of co-op membership, including 

“Shop locally, for less”, which highlights 

the value of supporting local community 

stores. Last month, the co-op added 

a member discount to the campaign, 

which applies to more than 50 everyday 

essential products. Chief member and 

customer officer, Rajesh Gupta, said: 

“We’re always looking for ways to give 

back to our members. These offers on 

essential products are part of our aim 

to support members in our communities 

this winter.” 

Central says the rebrand also sees 

investment in its 7,700 colleagues, with 

the launch of a new cultural framework, 

We are the difference makers, shaped by 

input from over 1,000 of its staff. 

The society recently announced a pay 

rise for frontline colleagues of 30p per 

hour, taking basic pay to £10 per hour. 

COMMUNITY 

Co-op brewery opens 

the fi st taproom in 

Northern Ireland 

An independent co-op brewery opened a 

taproom in east Belfast last week after a 

record-breaking Crowdfund campaign. 

Boundary Brewing’s taproom, the first 

ever to open in Northern Ireland, follows 

10 years of work by the co-op, which has 

grown to more than 2,000 members. 

The taproom is next to the brewery site 

and serves beers from Boundary and other 

breweries, alongside wines, local spirits 

and food from neighbouring business 

Flout Pizza. It also offers a meeting 

place for clubs, groups and community 

organisations and more. 

Its Facebook page says it offers 20 taps, 

fridges full of cans and Belgian beer, and 

an “awesome” wine list. 

Boundary was launched eight years 

ago when a Crowdfunding drive raised 

£100,000 from over 400 members in 

eight days. This was followed a few 

years later with another share offer that 

raised another £160,000 and brought in 

hundreds more member-owners. 

At the launch of the second share offer, 

Boundary’s co-founder Matthew Dick 

said: “Opening a taproom has been our 

dream and we can’t believe that we’re now 

making that dream a reality. 

“If you have fallen head over heels in 

love with Boundary, or just love beer, 

and have always wanted a permanent 

place to come to enjoy the freshest, most 

interesting beers in Belfast, this is the 

place for you.” 


RETAIL 

Pay dispute at Co-op 

Group coffin actory 

continues after second 

week’s strike action 

Trade union Unite said in early 

November that further industrial action 

will take place at the Co-op Group’s coffin 

factory, at the end of the second week of 

strike action in a row over pay. 

Around 50 workers at the Co-op 

Funeralcare site in Bogmoor Place, 

Glasgow, took part in the strike after voting 

to reject a pay offer, which the union says 

is below inflation. This follows an initial 

strike from 22-29 August. 

Unite then said there would be a third 

week of action at the site, from 14-21 

November, after talks at ACAS broke up 

without agreement. It says additional 

strike dates would also be confirmed at a 

later date, with potential disruption into 

the new year if there is no resolution. 

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham 

said: “Unite representatives attended 

ACAS in the hope of an improved offer. 

The employer, however, failed to come 

to the meeting with anything more for 

our members and so strike action will 

continue with the full support of Unite. 

The Co-op should be under no illusion 

that Unite members are up for the fight.” 

Willie Thomson, Unite regional officer 

said: “The determination of our members 

to win a fair wage deal remains resolute 

and Co-op Funeralcare must recognise 

this or risk a long and damaging dispute. 

It is totally unacceptable to ask our 

members to take a real term pay cut 

during a cost of living crisis. Our members 

deserve better. It’s time for the Co-op to 

show they are different from ‘bad bosses’ 

and come to the negotiating table with a 

significant offer to end this dispute. With 

the full backing of Unite our members will 

continue to fight for a decent wage.” 

In response to last week’s dispute, the 

Group said it made a fair pay offer and said 

its funeral services would not be affected. 

Its latest statement on the dispute says: 

“Our colleagues at our Glasgow coffin 

factory are a hugely valued part of our 

Co-op and following ongoing discussions 

with Unite we are disappointed that we 

have not been able to reach an agreement 

about pay. 

“In spite of the difficult trading 

environment, we have offered all of our 

colleagues at the coffin factory a fair 

pay increase. We are confident that the 

combined base pay and production bonus 

for roles within the Coffin Factory remain 

highly competitive. 

“We would like to provide full 

reassurance that the strike has no impact 

on our ability support to bereaved families 

and we are able to maintain a strong 

supply of coffins.” 

Co-op Group to give all staff paid leave for fertility treatment 

A new policy launched by the Co-op 

Group will give paid leave to employees 

going through fertility treatment, as well 

as staff who are acting as surrogates. 

Launched during National Fertility 

Awareness Week, the Group’s policy offers 

flexible and unrestricted leave to enable 

staff to attend appointments necessary 

for fertility treatment processes, including 

the use of a surrogate. 

Employees with partners going through 

treatment may also take paid leave to 

attend up to 10 appointments per cycle, 

for up to three cycles of fertility treatment. 

All the Group’s employees are entitled 

to this leave, regardless of how long 

they have worked for the business or the 

number of hours they work. 

Staff are advised in the policy to talk 

to their manager as soon as treatment 

is approved, so that they can discuss 

adjustments that may need to be made. 

YouGov research commissioned by the 

Group found that 45% of people who are 

currently undertaking, or have previously 

undertaken fertility treatment whilst 

working, didn’t talk with their manager 

beforehand. The Group has produced a 

guide to help managers support colleagues 

going through fertility treatment. 

The Group is also offering employees 

going through fertility treatment access 

to support including counselling, lifestyle 

and financial wellbeing services. 

The new policy also includes a section 

covering embryo transfer and pregnancy 

rights, which connects to the Group’s 

existing pregnancy loss policy if embryo 

transfer is unsuccessful. 

CEO Shirine Khoury-Haq said: “It’s 

incredibly difficult to navigate through 

fertility treatment while balancing work 

and the wider impact on your life. Sadly, 

in some cases, there is also the need to 

manage the physical and emotional impact 

of failed cycles and even pregnancy loss. 

“The decision to discuss this with your 

employer is an incredibly difficult and 

personal one. However, by creating a 

supportive environment companies can 

go a long way in opening the conversation 

with colleagues and easing the stress that 

people in this situation often feel. 

“Having gone through all of this myself, 

I felt very lucky to be in a supportive 

professional environment; however, this 

isn’t always the case for so many people. 

I feel very proud that the Co-op is leading 

the way on launching a fertility policy and 

supporting our colleagues at a time when 

they need it most.” 


RETAIL 

New moves from the Group on community, environment and Fairtrade 

The Co-op Group has made a series of 

announcements of initiatives on plastic 

waste, community support and Fairtrade. 

They include a partnership with 

Crowdfunder to offer thousands of local 

causes the chance to unlock additional 

funding for community projects. 

The initiative is open to local charities 

and grassroots community organisations 

which benefit from the Group’s Local 

Community Fund. It means money raised 

by Group members now counts towards 

match funding on Crowdfunder. 

Since 2016, Co-op members have raised 

£117m for local communities, including 

funding for over 30,000 local community 

projects supporting an estimated 7 million 

people across the UK. 

The Group says the money “helps 

to build stronger and more resilient 

communities by tackling key issues such as 

access to food, mental wellbeing support 

and opportunities for young people”. 

This month, 4,500 community groups 

have shared the latest round of funding. 

Through the partnership, causes who 

benefit from Co-op’s Local Community 

Fund can apply for additional support 

through the +Extra Funding page on 

Crowdfunder, with over £10m in match 

funding available from Crowdfunder’s 

national and regional partners. 

Rob Love, founder and CEO at 

Crowdfunder, said: “We are thrilled to 

be working with the Co-op on this new 

initiative. UK charities and community 

causes are calling for support and this 

partnership will help give these projects 

access to a range of funds meaning they 

can top up their fundraising efforts with 

match funding from a variety of partners 

we work with at Crowdfunder.” 

David Luckin, the Group’s head of 

community funding and impact, said: “We 

know that costs are rising for local charities 

and community organisations across the 

country, while demand for the support 

they provide is increasing. Now than ever, 

causes need access to funding to maintain, 

build and enhance their projects.” 

The Group has also forgone the 

traditional Christmas TV ad campaign and 

will instead host a live stream from “Your 

Local Pantry”, to highlight community 

food initiatives. 

p Big Zuu (left) drops in on the Local Peckham Pantry 

TV chef and rapper Big Zuu will bring 

the Local Peckham Pantry community 

together, to host a live cookalong, with 

special guests, members and volunteers. 

The Group is partnering with Your 

Local Pantry to bring 150 more UK 

neighbourhoods together around food 

and support 32,000 households manage 

finances over the next three years. 

Big Zuu said: “Everyone deserves access 

to great quality food at affordable prices. I 

hope that by visiting the Peckham Pantry 

and cooking up some healthy, tasty and 

more affordable meals with the team, more 

people in need will seek out community 

initiatives like Your Local Pantry.” 

On Fairtrade, the Group has launched 

two new lines through Ever Ground coffee 

brand, first launched in 2020. 

Ever Ground initially offered 100% 

Fairtrade hot drink drinks from vending 

machines in Group stores. The two new 

coffee lines – Whole Bean and Ground 

Coffee – are also 100% Fairtrade and are 

available across Co-op and Nisa stores. 

They are packet coffee for home brewing 

rather than vending machines. 

Own-brand planning manager Grace 

Bowker said: “Our customers and 

members have already really resonated 

with our new brand as it not only makes 

delicious coffee, but the range is sourced 

on Fairtrade terms which means standing 

with farmers for fairness and equality, 

in countries such as Ethiopia, Brazil and 

Colombia.” 

The new duo follows the introduction 

of two chilled ready to drink Ever Ground 

coffee lines, which launched exclusively 

to festival-goers this summer before being 

rolled out to stores. The Ever Ground 

Latte (250ml) and Oat Latte (250ml) are 

available in selected stores across the UK. 

Kerrina Thorogood, commercial 

director, Fairtrade Foundation, said: 

“This new line provides the perfect 

blend of fairer prices and investment for 

hardworking coffee-growing communities 

so they can continue to produce quality 

beans and look after their natural 

environment.” 

On the issue of plastic waste, the Group 

is launching a trial to uncover the number 

of its own-brand plastic bottles that are 

being recycled to help benchmark future 

recycling rates for the industry. 

It is working with Polytag – a technology 

business that enables a circular economy 

for packaging – to collect recycling data 

that will showcase the exact number of 

Co-op bottles that are being sorted at 

recycling centres. 

It will add a UV invisible code to the 

label of one of its best-selling own-brand 

spring water lines, which will allow the 

recycling centre taking part in the trial to 

collect real-time data. 

Matt Hood, MD of Co-op Food, said: 

“This new trial will enable Co-op to gather 

valuable insight to provide guidance and 

measurement for future initiatives to 

encourage more people to recycle and it 

will also support the industry with true 

benchmarks for recycling rates in the UK 

for the very first time.” 

The Group has also committed to 

removing coloured milk bottle caps. 

Colour contamination makes it harder for 

materials to be recycled into food-grade 

packaging. 


POLITICS 

Co-op Party calls for clearer growth plan after Jeremy Hunt’s budget 

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt unveiled his 

autumn statement to the House of 

Commons last month, after a turbulent 

period for the government marked by the 

fiasco over Kwasi Kwarteng’s financial 

statement and the departure of Liz Truss. 

Hunt (pictured) is attempting to correct 

the government’s course under new PM 

Rishi Sunak but his statement met a 

critical reception in the press. 

And the Co-op Party said it “could 

have been an opportunity to address 

the inequalities we face in our economy. 

However, for communities, businesses 

and co-operatives across the country, the 

chancellor’s promise of growth is still 

unclear and uncertain”. 

The chancellor announced a raft of 

measures including an increase in the 

minimum wage, state pensions and 

means-tested and disability benefits. 

Apart from in Scotland, the top 45% 

additional rate of income tax will be 

paid on earnings over £125,140, instead 

of £150,000. Thresholds on income tax 

National Insurance and inheritance 

tax have all been frozen for further two 

years, until 2028. Tax-free allowances for 

dividend and capital gains tax are also 

due to be cut next year and in 2024. 

Local councils in England will be able to 

raise council tax by up to 5% a year. 

The Co-op Party’s communications 

assistant Georgia Horsfall welcomed new 

funding for retrofitting and other energy 

efficiency initiatives, but criticised its 

start date of 2025. “This means families 

struggling to pay their bills now will not 

feel the benefits of this policy for another 

two years. We also heard the Energy Price 

Guarantee will be going up to £3,000 

from April – even more evidence that we 

should have an energy sector owned and 

controlled by us.” 

With regard to community energy, the 

Party also wants to see more clarity in 

Hunt’s budget to introduce a windfall tax 

on energy generators. 

“While the windfall tax will only apply to 

schemes larger than 100GWh per annum, 

which means that small community 

energy projects will not be affected, it is 

important that the principal difference is 

recognised between community-owned 

projects, where profits are reinvested in 

the community, and for-profit schemes,” 

said Horsfall. “Recently Co-operative 

parliamentarians pressed for immediate 

action to safeguard the contribution made 

by community and co-operatively owned 

energy initiatives and include exemptions 

for our sector in the Energy Prices Bill. 

“The government must go further than 

simply verbally committing and ensure 

this is enshrined into law.” 

The Party welcomed increases to 

benefits but called for the value of 

Healthy Start vouchers to be raised in 

line with soaring inflation. And Horsfall 

said more attention should have been 

paid to challenges in the childcare sector 

“to address the cost of childcare [which 

is] forcing many, mostly women, to stay 

at home. 

She also criticised Hunt’s failure to 

reverse the 2020 government cut to the 

international development budget. “Co-op 

Party members have applied pressure 

in all forms to hold the government 

to its commitment on international 

development. The announcement to not 

restore overseas aid spending to 0.7% of 

GDP for another five years is a huge blow 

to those countries who need it most.” 

She added: “We got little in terms 

of commitments, little in terms of 

clarity, little in terms of confidence, and 

fundamentally little for our sector. The 

Co-op Party will continue to campaign for 

action which delivers a fairer, greener and 

more prosperous Britain for all.” 

There was also criticism from Tony 

Armstrong, CEO of Locality, the national 

network for community organisations. 

He said: “For community organisations 

on the front line, there is little here to 

change the reality on the ground right 

now. Charities and local groups have 

been working tirelessly to support their 

communities with food banks, warm 

spaces and money advice – all while their 

own costs continue to skyrocket. 

“Uprating benefits in line with inflation 

and continuing the emergency Household 

Support Fund will provide important 

help for those who need it most. But to 

ensure people can continue to access vital 

local support, the government should 

extend energy bill relief for community 

organisations after April, and prioritise 

them in the welcome drive for energy 

efficiency. We need our front line local 

organisations now more than ever, not 

just to get people through this crisis, but 

also to build a hopeful future.” 

Ailbhe McNabola, director of policy and 

communications at community business 

body Power to Change, said: “With the 

UK now facing a recession, we know 

that communities – and the community 

businesses that serve them – will see an 

increased demand on services which are 

already under strain. Continued pressures 

on public services will further exacerbate 

this. Community businesses will continue 

to provide vital support in their places 

through the challenges of a recession 

and can support those furthest from the 

labour market to build their skills and 

employability ... but they need certainty 

and support from the government to 

ensure places not only survive but thrive 

during the current crisis.” 


HOUSING 

Confederation of Co-op 

Housing announces 

annual award winners 

The UK Confederation of Co-operative 

Housing (CCH) presented its annual 

awards at its conference in Kenilworth. 

Housing Co-operator: Helen Bartlett, 

Rosabridge/Bunker Housing Co-op 

Helen is the driving force behind 

Rosabridge Housing Co-op, an LGBTQ+ 

co-op in Brighton, and has been a tireless 

supporter of other co-ops in the city. 

Sustainability at Home – Edinburgh 

Student Housing Co-operative (ESHC) 

ESHC received the award for its recent 

renovation using renewable and reclaimed 

materials – with barely anything concrete 

or petrochemical-based. 

Active Membership – Belgrave 

Neighbourhood Co-op 

This Leicester housing association 

has introduced an Active Management 

Programme with regular newsletters, a 

website, and new social media accounts. 

Young Co-operators of the Year – 

Seasalt Student Housing Co-operative 

CCH says this Brighton co-op is “an 

inspirational group of young people who 

have successfully delivered their build 

project and while actively promoting 

a super exciting and inspiring housing 

presence on various social media”. 

Special Longevity Award – Theresa 

Lyons, Senacre Housing Co-op 

Theresa has lived at the Maidstone, Kent 

co-op since 1996, serving as treasurer, 

secretary, maintenance officer and is now 

chair. She has also served on the CCH and 

CDS Co-operatives’s board, and was chair 

of the Housing Service sub committee. 

Dairy co-ops First Milk and Arla sign whey protein deal 

UK dairy co-op First Milk has announced 

a partnership with Arla Foods Ingredients 

to produce a specialist whey protein 

powder at its Lake District Creamery. First 

Milk will manufacture Nutrilac® FO-7875, 

developed by Arla as an ingredient to 

enhance the level of protein in food and 

drink products while retaining texture and 

taste – a growing trend in the industry. 

Southern Co-op hosts Christmas memorial at burial site 

Southern Co-op colleagues at Mayfields 

Woodland Burial Ground, Wirral, have 

organised a free memorial service for 

anyone who wants to remember lost loved 

ones this Christmas. 

On the evening of 14 December, 

members of the public are invited to leave 

tributes on Mayfield’s Christmas tree and 

light candles to remember loved ones. 

Central Co-op sends out its festive truck for a toy appeal 

Central Co-op’s festive truck has 

completed a halfway tour of the society’s 

trading area collecting toys for its 

Christmas appeal. Donation points for 

the appeal – which this year will include 

Ukrainian children in the UK – will 

remain open at all the society’s outlets 

until 2 December. 

Credit unions among Consumer Credit Awards winners 

The UK Consumer Credit Awards 2022 

included two credit union categories in 

the Product Awards section. Wiltshire & 

Swindon Credit Union won Best Credit 

Union – South. Central Liverpool Credit 

Union (CLCU) won North, and also 

scooped the award for Best Loan Provider 

(under £2.5k). Glasgow Credit Union was 

highly commended in the North category. 

£500k needed to complete Oxford housing co-op site 

Oxfordshire Community Land Trust 

(OCLT) is looking to raise half a million 

pounds to finish construction on homes 

in west Oxford. Crofts Court will offer eight 

co-operatively managed apartments at 

affordable rents but has been hit by rising 

interest rates on its finance. 

More details at ethex.org.uk/invest/oclt 


RETAIL 

Lincolnshire Co-op 

names new CEO as it 

announces trading 

surplus of £16.6m 

Lincolnshire Co-op has appointed Alison 

Hands as its new chief executive officer, 

following the retirement this month of 

Ursula Lidbetter. 

The news comes as the retail society 

announced its annual results for the year 

to 3 September, with a 12% increase in 

overall sales to £399m, and the trading 

surplus falling 9.1% to £16.6m. 

The society said it was a “healthy” set 

of results despite the impact of rising costs 

including energy and food distribution 

which “will continue to present challenges 

over the next trading period”. 

It has shared a dividend bonus of £1.6m 

with members, who have already received 

£1.9m during the financial year. 

The society’s outgoing CEO Ursula 

Lidbetter announced her retirement in 

March after 37 years with the society, 18 of 

those as its chief executive. 

Hands joins in April, with Steve 

Galjaard, chief financial officer, filling in 

as acting CEO alongside his current role. 

Currently managing director at Wilko, 

Hands has more than 30 years of retail 

experience, including roles at Marks and 

Spencer, the Body Shop, Walgreens Boots 

Alliance and Boots Opticians. 

“I’m honoured to be joining this valuesdriven 

organisation, which continues 

to build on its success, while delivering 

its purpose to make life better in 

communities,” she said. “I’m excited to be 

charged with leading the society through 

the next phase of its development, as we 

p Ursula Lidbetter 

collectively tackle the challenges of the 

current external environment.” 

Chair David Cowell said the society 

had “flourished” under Lidbetter, who 

is “leaving Lincolnshire Co-op in a great 

position for the future”. 

He added: “We welcome Alison with 

the knowledge she will continue this 

good work and help us move forward. She 

brings a wealth of experience and insight, 

as well as a deep understanding of bricks 

and mortar retail and what that means to 

customers. She’s also passionate about 

our purpose and values.” 

Lidbetter joined the society in 1985 as a 

buyer and department manager – and as 

CEO, currently supports 300,000 members 

and 2,900 local colleagues in Lincolnshire 

and the surrounding counties. 

From November 2013 – February 2015 

she stepped up for a brief stint as chair 

of the Co-op Group, where she helped 

to steer it through the early stages of its 

rescue from its financial crisis. 

She has also been at the helm of major 

projects including the creation of the 

Lincoln Science and Innovation Park 

and the Cornhill Quarter development in 

p The society supported local causes through its Community Champions scheme 

p Alison Hands 

Lincoln. She received an OBE in 2019 for 

services to the local economy. 

“Now feels the right time to pass the 

baton on,” she said. “I’m looking forward 

to seeing how Lincolnshire develops under 

Alison’s leadership, working alongside 

the great team we have in place.” 

In its annual report, the society hailed 

a return to normal trading after the 

pandemic, with travel showing growth on 

pre-pandemic trading years. A quarter of 

clients have booked with the society for 

the first time, it adds, with many wanting 

the support of using a travel agent after 

the disruption caused by Covid-19. 

Food sales steadied, and the society’s 

Love Local range, which supports 

producers across the trading area, 

recorded sales of £4.8m. 

Pharmacies dispensed 5.9 million 

prescription items, a rise of 3%. 

Community health services saw colleagues 

guide 16,302 patients through the use 

of their medication as part of the New 

Medicines Service (NMS). Over 25,000 jabs 

were administered at the society’s Covid 

vaccination sites in Lincoln and Boston 

and 13,040 flu vaccines were delivered in 

branch and at community-based clinics. 

Funeral branches helped families with 

2,772 funeral arrangements in the year. 

Post offices “continued to provide 

valued services for communities, with 

banking services proving particularly 

useful in rural areas”. 

New food stores opened in Retford and 

Barnetby during 2022 and construction 

is taking place at a further five food store 

sites, due to open in 2023. 

A total of 496 groups and charities 

shared £680,776 raised this year through 

the Community Champions scheme. 


TRANSPORT 

Rail co-op applies to run services in south-west of England 

Plans to launch the UK’s first cooperatively 

managed rail service has 

moved a step closer after Go-op – a coop 

campaigning for rail owned by its 

users and workers – handed in a formal 

application to run services in the southwest 

of England. 

Go-op has applied to the Office of Rail 

and Road to run services between Taunton 

and Westbury, starting in 2023. This will 

see 10 departures a day, improving the 

service levels in growing market towns, 

such as Frome and Melksham. 

“Go-op has taken several years of 

careful research and planning to ensure 

that our plan is both compliant with the 

highest standards of rail operation, and 

commercially viable too,” said the co-op’s 

vice chair Alex Lawrie. 

“As a co-operative, not only can Go-op 

improve transport links for some of our 

important local growing towns but we 

could help reduce CO2 emissions by 2.7 

million kg annually if people move their 

journeys to our railway.” 

Go-op has commissioned independent 

research which estimates that as many 

as 40% of passengers would be new to 

the rail network, which equates to some 

17.5 million seat miles each year, with a 

significant number likely to shift from 

travelling by car. 

And a Go-op study claims that towns 

served by Go-op could share up to £37.5m 

of productivity gains, and benefit from 

connections for services to and from 

Yeovil, Southampton and Exeter. 

The co-op will be owned and managed 

by members of the public and Go-op 

employees, with operations run by 

industry professionals. But unlike other 

train companies, Go-op will be seeking 

investment from passengers and the local 

community and, after paying all expenses 

(including a fair rate of interest to investors), 

it says all remaining profits will be devoted 

to further improvements to public transport. 

With a target of £1.1m, Go-op is to 

launch a funding round. 

Following an industry consultation, 

Wiltshire Council, Somerset Council, 

Cross Country Trains and the DfT have all 

expressed support for the proposal. 

A better way of doing boardrooms. 

We’re looking for Member Nominated Directors 

The Co-op was founded in 1844 to make a difference for local communities when times were hard. Today our purpose is more 

relevant than ever – we’re owned not by shareholders or wealthy individuals, but by 4.6 million members who all have a say in how 

our business is run. 

As a Member Nominated Director, you’ll be a voice for our members in the boardroom, working closely with our National 

Members’ Council by attending Council meetings, taking part in Q&As and listening to the views of members from across the UK. 

We’re committed to equality and inclusion, and we’re proud of the diversity of our Board, but we need to do more to eliminate 

the inequalities that currently exist within our Co-op and the wider world too. So, we’re looking for applicants who are keen to play 

their part in this. 

To be considered for the role, you’ll need to be a Co-op Member with proven board experience. It’s important you can 

demonstrate real commercial acumen and an appreciation of the strategic challenges that come with a large, complex business 

like ours. A commitment to our co-operative values is also essential. 

If you’re selected as a candidate, you’ll take part in an election in which our members will vote. If you’re elected, you’ll be 

appointed after our Annual General Meeting (AGM) in May 2023. 

The closing date for applications is 20 December 2022. This year, we have one Member Nominated Director seat 

up for election. 

For more information about the opportunity and a confidential discussion, 

please contact our advisors Warren Partners at coopMND@warrenpartners.co.uk or on 0845 261 0600. 

To apply, please visit www.co-operative.coop/mndelection 


GLOBAL UPDATES 

GLOBAL 

COP27: Fair 

Trade organisations 

launch urgent call 

for ‘inclusive climate 

solutions’ 

As the 2022 United Nations Climate 

Change Conference (COP27) got under 

way in Egypt (6-18 November), fairtrade 

organisations called on global leaders to 

tackle climate change while protecting 

the world’s small-scale producers, most of 

whom are members of co-operatives. 

Ahead of the summit, Fairtrade 

International, the World Fair Trade 

Organization (WFTO), and the Fair 

Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO) launched 

a position paper, The Clock is Ticking, 

which argues that critical measures are 

needed to deliver fair climate solutions. 

These include meeting the US$100bn 

(£84.18bn) climate aid commitment 

promised by the end of 2022; ensuring 

climate finance delivers for smallholder 

farmers, small and medium enterprises 

(SMEs), and workers by including them 

in the design of climate programmes; 

agreeing on regulations that tackle the 

root causes of environmental degradation, 

such as deforestation, by penalising noncompliance; 

and supporting farmers, 

SMEs and workers with the costs of 

adaptation and mitigation. 

The paper also calls on businesses to 

“pay fair prices to smallholder farmers, 

SMEs and workers”. 

“International trade today is not only 

one of the leading contributors to climate 

change, but also drives high costs of doing 

business that cut across supply chains, 

p Sandra Uwera 

p Prudencio Fernandez, Fairtrade producer in Honduras (Image: Fairtrade) 

affecting farmers’ readiness to respond to 

climate catastrophes,” said Sandra Uwera, 

global CEO at Fairtrade International. 

“As Fairtrade, we seek a multistakeholder 

partnership and collaboration 

approach, towards addressing efforts 

that strengthen producers’ resilience and 

capacity to manage adverse impacts of 

climate change. 

“With world leaders, international 

delegates, and civil society actors now 

gathering for COP27, Fairtrade and the 

Fair Trade movement are once again 

called upon to remind them of their duty 

to right the global wrongs that continue 

to disproportionately impact our planet’s 

most vulnerable communities and deliver 

equitable climate action once and for all.” 

WFTO chief executive Leida Rijnhout 

added: “The biggest challenge to 

combating climate change is eliminating 

the current economic system that is 

dependent on fossil fuels and the 

extraction of natural resources. Without 

real accountability on what the big 

polluters are doing, mission-led business 

models, including SMEs, are the only way 

to go. 

“WFTO members are showcasing that 

another economy is possible. They can 

be the driving force to achieve climate 

justice.” 

The position paper also mentions 

some of the challenges facing small-scale 

farmers, such as the lack of financial 

assistance to enable them to successfully 

mitigate and adapt to climate challenges. 

According to the paper, less than 2% 

of climate finance reaches small-scale 

farmers. The organisations argue that 

the awarding criteria and procedures of 

financial mechanisms must be aligned to 

small producers and their organisations 

so that they can access available funding 

and manage it in a non-bureaucratic way. 

Writing after the event, Uwera 

described COP27 as “an unremarkable 

affair, contoured by the usual parade 

of delegates, an increased presence of 

industry lobbyists, and the growing 

certainty that the climate targets set in the 

Paris Agreement will not be achieved”. 

She added: “Once again our planet’s 

most vulnerable communities will be left 

to the mercy of the unpredictable forces of 

climate change [which] imperils the very 

existence of our planet’s food supply. 

Uwera described how farmers and 

agricultural workers are not only on 

the frontline of the climate crisis; they 

also have the on-the-ground expertise 

to address it head-on, but stressed that 

role in combating climate change comes 

with a financial cost – “one that must be 

incorporated into market prices in a fair 

and equitable manner.” 

“It is clear that the world has missed its 

chance at mitigating the effects of climate 

change and all efforts must now focus 

on adaptation,” she said. “But climate 

adaptation requires financing and no one 

knows better what adaptation measures 

must be adopted than the farmers 

themselves.” 

“The world’s smallholder farmers and 

agricultural workers are ready, willing, 

and able to help confront climate change 

where it matters most, protecting their 

communities, preserving their livelihoods, 

and safeguarding our planet’s food supply. 

Nevertheless, the question remains: are 

our leaders willing to let them? That’s an 

answer COP27 has yet failed to provide. 

And it’s an answer we’re still waiting for.” 


GLOBAL 

ICA Governance Committee launches 

General Assembly elections enquiry 

The International Cooperative Alliance 

is conducting an enquiry into its General 

Assembly elections, which took place in 

June in Seville, Spain. Held on 20 June, the 

General Assembly featured elections for 

the ICA President position and the board 

at large. 

The enquiry was launched after several 

delegates expressed concerns over a range 

of issues including allocating only half a 

day for the elections, which, due to the 

failure of the online voting system, had to 

be carried manually. Another issue raised 

by delegates was the fact that the board 

at large elections began before knowing 

the results of the presidential election due 

to lack of time, despite the fact that Jean- 

Louis Bancel from France was standing 

for both the president and board at large 

elections. Had Bancel won the President 

election, he would have automatically 

gained a seat of the ICA board, meaning 

that he would not have needed to stand 

for election for the board-at-large. 

Some delegates alleged that holding the 

board at large election before knowing the 

results of the presidential election led to 

confusion among delegations regarding 

how many candidates they should vote 

for and there were claims that the voting 

instructions were misinterpreted when 

translated into other languages. 

The enquiry follows a dispute over 

the validity of 64 board-at-large election 

ballots containing votes for 16, instead of 

15 candidates. The Elections Committee 

initially declared these invalid and 

communicated the election results 

accordingly but revised the decision after 

receiving legal advice. This led to Ben Reid, 

representing the Midcounties Co-operative 

(UK) replacing Simona Cavazzutti from 

Confederación de Cooperativas Rurales 

del Paraguay (CONCOPAR), Paraguay. 

The presidential election was won 

by Ariel Guarco from Argentina, who 

received 455 votes. Melina Morrison from 

Australia received 164 votes while Jean- 

Louis Bancel from France had 160 votes. 

Speaking after the election in Seville, 

Guarco apologised on behalf of the ICA for 

the issues with the online voting system. 

“We are all victims of this failure,” he said 

at the time. 

Bancel, who did not gain a seat in the 

board-at-large elections, also took to the 

floor shortly after the elections, calling 

for unity, while asking the re-elected 

president and board to see what happened 

at the election and “try to find a way not to 

go in that type of failure again”. 

In the aftermath of the election, Bruno 

Roelants, director general of the ICA, 

said in a message to members on 1 July 

that “a number of issues” had come 

up during the vote, the failure of the 

electronic voting system forcing a switch 

to a manual vote. He added that the 

issues were caused by “a combination 

of different circumstances”, including 

disruption to language interpretation, 

adding that these had nothing to do with 

the Spanish hosts. 

The system had been used four times 

before the election “without a hitch”, 

added Roelants, who also thanked the 

ICA Elections Committee for “their very 

difficult task”. 

The ICA has been approached for a 

comment on the enquiry – the apex said 

it would wait for the results of the ongoing 

investigation before making further 

statements on the issue. 

IRELAND 

Ministers announce new legislation to strengthen co-op sector 

Ireland’s government has agreed to start 

work on the drafting of a new Co-operative 

Societies Bill, which would aid investment 

in the sector and enforce the co-op ethos. 

Announcing the bill, the government 

said its general scheme provides for a 

specific legislative framework for co-op 

societies for the first time, with societies 

registering under the legislation being 

required to adhere to the co-op ethos. 

Ministers also hope to consolidate 

and modernise existing provisions and 

introduce modern corporate governance, 

financial reporting and compliance 

requirements, thereby making cooperatives 

more attractive to investors. 

p Ministers Dara Calleary and Leo Varadkar 

The general scheme also includes 

provisions to: make it easier to set-up and 

operate a co-op – for example, by reducing 

the minimum number of founding 

members (from seven to three); expand 

the categories of founding members to 

include corporate bodies; provide for audit 

exemptions for smaller co-ops; provide 

for virtual and hybrid participation at 

general meetings; and empower co-ops 

by providing them with the flexibility to 

reflect in their rules what best suits their 

own particular circumstances 

Leo Varadkar, tánaiste and minister for 

enterprise, trade and employment, said: 

“The [co-op] model can work particularly 

well for social enterprises. 

“However, the law governing cooperatives 

has not kept up with the times. 

This new law changes all that, responds to 

the needs of the co-operative movement 

and opens a path for a new wave of cooperative 

societies.” 


USA 

Electric co-ops urge government to boost 

domestic production of distribution transformers 

Rural electric co-ops in the USA are asking 

the federal Department of Energy (DOE) to 

use funding from the Inflation Reduction 

Act to address the shortage of distribution 

transformers. 

In a letter to energy secretary Jennifer 

Granholm on 19 October, the National 

Rural Electric Association (NRECA) and 

American Public Power Association urged 

the DOE to prioritise Inflation Reduction 

Act (IRA) funding to immediately boost 

the domestic production of distribution 

transformers, by using its authority under 

the Defense Production Act (DPA). 

According to the letter, the shortage 

“poses an unacceptable risk to the electric 

reliability”. 

“If we don’t act today, we risk being 

unable to recover from a storm tomorrow,” 

read the letter, co-signed by NRECA CEO 

Jim Matheson and American Public Power 

Association CEO Joy Ditto. 

DOE said it intends to use the IRA funding 

to make more heat pumps available but 

the two apexes argue the funds should 

go toward distribution transformers in 

order to fast-track domestic production of 

critical grid components. 

The letter highlights issues faced by 

rural electric co-ops and communityowned 

utilities, including procuring basic 

equipment for reliable service, especially 

in areas ravaged by disasters. 

It adds that labour is a key challenge for 

manufacturers, urging DOE to “establish 

a $220m wage subsidy programme that 

would assist manufacturers in attracting 

and retaining more workers, thus enabling 

them to move to 24/7 operations”. 

According to the letter, such a programme 

could result in increased output of 

approximately 30% of distribution 

transformers in 2023. 

A July report by Tiger Team, a group 

of co-ops, public power providers, 

investor-owned utilities and key federal 

agencies, found that the average wait 

for a distribution transformer is one year 

and that labour is the most immediate 

challenge to replenishing supply. 

Image: GettyImages/Bronwyn8 

“While we support long-term investment 

in domestic manufacturing capacity 

for heat pumps, we believe the current 

shortage of distribution transformers 

available to electric utilities poses an 

unacceptable risk to the electric reliability 

of our nation and urge you to alleviate this 

unprecedented situation by prioritising 

available IRA funding for transformers,” 

the letter warned. 

“In the longer term, it could mean being 

unable to meet the electrification goals 

envisioned by the Biden administration. In 

the meantime, the backlog for distribution 

transformers continues to grow.” 

The two apexes said they were open to 

discussing the issue further with DOE to 

address this transformer shortage. 

Credit unions welcome court ruling of CFPB funding as unconstitutional 

The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals 

has ruled that the Consumer Financial 

Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) funding 

mechanism is unconstitutional. 

Made on 19 October, the appeals court’s 

ruling was welcomed by lenders including 

the Credit Union National Association 

(Cuna) and the National Association of 

Federally-Insured Credit Unions (Nafcu). 

An independent agency, CFPB was 

created in 2011 as part of the 2010 Dodd- 

Frank Act passed by Congress under the 

Democratic Obama administration. Its 

roles include writing and enforcing rules 

for financial institutions, including credit 

unions, and monitoring the market. 

Under the current structure, CFBP is 

funded directly by the Federal Reserve, 

bypassing Congress – a move designed to 

insulate it from political pressures – but 

the court ruled this was unconstitutional. 

“Congress’s decision to abdicate 

its appropriations power under the 

Constitution, i.e., to cede its power of 

the purse to the Bureau, violates the 

Constitution’s structural separation of 

powers,” the judges wrote. They argued 

this funding model provided too much 

authority to CFPB without it being 

accountable to Congress. The three judges 

on the panel were appointed by former 

Republican president Donald Trump. 

NAFCU president and CEO Dan Berger 

said: “NAFCU applauds the decision 

[...] We believe federal regulators need 

accountability and checks and balances. 

The CFPB should be subject to annual 

appropriations by Congress, as well as 

governed by a bi-partisan commission 

to ensure accountability as envisioned 

by the constitution. Nafcu has long 

advocated for increased Congressional 

oversight of the CFPB to ensure efficient 

and transparent use of taxpayer dollars, 

and to prevent abuse of the substantial 

power that Congress granted the Bureau.” 

The decision, which CFBP is expected 

to appeal, could have significant 

implications for the sector by overturning 

regulations and enforcement actions 

undertaken by the Bureau since its 

creation in 2011. The case was brought 

by two groups representing payday 

lenders: the Community Financial 

Services Association of America, a trade 

association representing the payday 

lending industry, and the Consumer 

Service Alliance of Texas. 


USA 

Worker co-ops welcome the California Employee Ownership Act 

New legislation gives California’s 

small business owners new options 

for succession while offering workers 

a chance to become co-owners of the 

enterprises where they work. 

Signed into law by governor Gavin 

Newsom (Democrats) on 29 September, 

the California Employee Ownership Act 

was welcomed by the US Federation of 

Worker Cooperatives (USFWC), whose 

members and policy director Mo Manklang 

has been campaigning state laws to grow 

worker ownership. 

Both houses approved the bill 

unanimously. The law was also backed 

by Worker-Owned Recovery California 

(WORC), whose members include worker 

co-operatives and USFWC, Project Equity, 

and Ownership America. 

The legislation will apply to worker 

co-ops, employee stock ownership 

plans (ESOPs), and employee ownership 

trusts. It will also establish an Employee 

Ownership Hub within the Governor’s 

Office for Business and Economic 

Development (GO-Biz) to provide business 

owners and workers with resources on 

employee ownership transitions, as well 

as support for existing worker-owned 

businesses. 

Specifically, the bill instructs the 

Hub to “increase awareness and 

understanding of employee ownership 

among stakeholders, assist business 

owners and employees in navigating 

available resources, and streamline and 

reduce barriers to employee ownership.” 

A provision to provide grant funding for 

up to US$50,000 (£42,096) for feasibility 

assessments, which formed part of the 

original bill was not included in the final 

version. However, the Bill sponsors intend 

to work to add that back in the next budget 

proposal from the governor. 

A 2017 report by the National Center 

for Employee Ownership found that 

employee-owners earn 33% more, stay 

in their jobs 50% longer, and have twice 

the household net worth of their peers in 

traditional businesses. 

“With its proven track record, employee 

ownership will now have a bigger role in 

California’s economy,” said Hilary Abell, 

a co-founder of Project Equity and WORC. 

“This could not come at a better time for 

business owners and workers.” 

The legislation is expected to help 

owners approaching retirement who do 

not yet have a formal succession plan. 

Around 359,000 Californian businesses 

are owned by people approaching their 

retirement – part of the ‘silver tsunami’ 

which has caused much concern to 

business experts. 

“Employee ownership enables working 

people to build wealth while sustaining 

businesses for the long haul in their 

communities,” said senator Josh Becker, 

who introduced the bill in March 2022. 

“Data shows that employee-owned 

businesses outperform their peers in 

profitability, productivity and resilience. 

p The Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco is one of the 100+ worker-owned co-ops in California 

p The State Capitol in Sacramento, California. 

(Image: GettyImages/ bbourdages 

Unfortunately, how to make these 

transitions and seize these opportunities 

is not widely understood. The new hub 

within GO-Biz will address that.” 

“The California Employee Ownership 

Act is a momentous step toward expanding 

employee ownership in our state and 

creating a resilient economy that works 

for working people,” said Bernadette King 

Fitzsimons, WORC’s coordinator. “Clearly, 

employee ownership is a true win-win.” 

California is home to more than 100 

worker-owned co-operatives and close to 

800 companies with ESOPs. 

“For decades we have seen worker coops 

thrive in California,” said Esteban 

Kelly, executive director of the USFWC. 

Businesses like Rainbow Grocery, 

Cheeseboard Collective, Courage Home 

Care and Echo Adventures illustrate the 

diversity of industries in which workers 

can succeed, build wealth, and centre 

their needs using co-operative models. 

“The California Employee Ownership 

Act creates dynamic support for worker 

ownership within Go-Biz by establishing 

an office that provides strategic resources 

toward the expansion of worker co-ops 

and ESOPs. 

“The Employee Ownership Hub is the 

first step in fostering the growth of durable 

businesses that build worker power 

in California.” 


EUROPE 

Co-ops respond 

to European 

consultation on 

developing the social 

economy 

In August the European Commission 

launched a public consultation to gather 

feedback for an upcoming Council 

Recommendation to help member states 

better adapt their policies and laws to the 

needs of the social economy. 

In its response to the consultation, 

Cooperatives Europe highlighted the need 

for a full recognition of co-operatives in 

all member states, calling for the ICA’s 

co-operative values and principles to 

be recognised as common features of 

the co-operative business model across 

the EU. Furthermore, argued the apex, 

co-operatives’ specificities must be 

recognised in the EU competition and 

taxation framework. 

“Their specific operating principles, 

management logic and other restrictions 

lead to different treatments across member 

states, which is not always fully understood 

in EU taxation or state-aid policies,” it 

said. “In that regard, the Commission’s 

guidelines for interpretations of cooperatives’ 

place in EU competition laws 

would be very welcome.” 

Cooperatives Europe also called on EU 

member states to provide better access 

to finance and education on co-operative 

entrepreneurship. 

“Given the benefits they bring to 

their community (decent employment, 

social cohesion, democracy), we believe 

all member states should include cooperative 

entrepreneurship in business 

education as part of their national curricula 

for schools and tertiary education, with 

the help of the Commission’s coordination 

and stakeholders’ involvement,” it said. 

Cecop, the European confederation of 

workers’ co-ops, social co-ops and social 

and participative enterprises, shared 

some of Cooperatives Europe’s concerns, 

particularly around ensuring recognition 

of the co-op model across all policy, and 

the need for legislation to facilitate the 

creation and functioning of worker and 

social co-operatives. In addition, Cecop 

wants a legal framework for worker 

buyouts, and support for platform co-ops 

– through the removal of legal barriers, a 

level playing field, and the implementation 

of the platform work directive. 

Furthermore, Cecop called for 

legislation to support worker and social 

co-ops including by making fiscal rules 

(including VAT and tax exemptions on 

retained benefits) favourable to their 

development. 

Another issue raised by co-ops is the 

need for public private partnerships 

that include co-ops. The European 

Research Institute on Cooperative and 

Social Enterprises (Euricse) argued 

for a shared administration approach, 

using mechanisms of co-programming 

and co-design instead of tender-based 

procurement. “This mechanism is not 

based on the criterion of maximum 

savings for the public administration but 

relies on a collaborative effort to achieve 

maximum satisfaction in terms of results 

obtained,” said Euricse. 

This issue was also mentioned by 

REScoop Wallonia, an apex for renewable 

energy co-ops in the Walloon region 

of Belgium, which is also a member of 

REScoop.eu, the European federation of 

citizen energy co-operatives. REScoop 

Wallonia’s feedback said: “In the context 

of public procurement, when there is a 

public aid mechanism, the price criterion 

must at least be weighted at least 70% of 

the total.” It wants this cut to 50% for social 

economy actors in order to “devote other 

criteria to aspects related to the impact, 

the degree of citizen participation”. 

The consultation ran from 18 August to 

30 September, enabling a range of social 

economy actors to take part, including cooperative 

organisations from Spain, Italy 

and France. 

For the full list and to read all 

submissions, see bit.ly/3sOrjRH 

Image: Getty/ Jorisvo 

Retail co-ops criticise 

‘bias’ in EU consultation 

on new genomic 

techniques 

Retail co-op body Euro Coop has signed an 

open letter to the EU health commissioner 

criticising the European Commission’s 

consultation process on the impact of new 

genomic techniques (NGTs). 

NGTs include new plant breeding 

techniques taking into account genetically 

modified organisms (GMOs) now in the 

wider environment. The Commission 

sought views and evidence from citizens 

and stakeholders on how to best regulate 

plants obtained from NGTs, saying it 

wanted to get feedback on the topic 

from EU and national public authorities, 

breeders, farmers and other economic 

operators in the agri-food chain, academia 

and researchers and NGOs. 

Euro Coop – the European community 

of consumer co-operatives – joined 39 

other organisations in writing to Stella 

Kyriakides, raising concerns over how 

the Directorate-General for Health and 

Food Safety (DG SANTE) is organising the 

impact assessment. 

The letter says the consultation process 

lacks transparency and does not offer 

material on policy options. It argues that 

selected stakeholders should have been 

identified from the outset – including 

details of the sectors they come from and 

the criteria that led to their selection. 

It also called for an explanation of how 

the input of different stakeholders will be 

weighted in the survey and report. 


EUROPE 

Cecop calls for ‘ambitious’ European 

Commission platform work directive 

The European confederation of industrial 

and service cooperatives (Cecop) has 

joined a call demanding changes to the 

European Commission’s directive on 

improving working conditions in platform 

work, set for debate by the European 

Parliament’s Employment Committee. 

In an open letter to European 

institutions, Cecop, along with the 

European Trade Union Confederation, 

the European Youth Forum, and Solidar 

(a European and worldwide network of 

civil society organisations), warns that 

digitisation “should always provide 

social improvements, respect working 

conditions, and be developed in cooperation 

with workers and trade unions”. 

The letter points out that digital labour 

platforms are more than just digital 

marketplaces that facilitate the offer 

and demand between an undertaking 

and a client. It highlights that many 

exert the prerogatives of employers by 

relying on rating systems and performing 

algorithm management, among other 

forms of control. It adds: “This group of 

digital labour platforms have based their 

business model on creating a ‘race to 

the bottom’ on rights, through enhancing 

competition among workers, putting the 

risks of the activity on their shoulders, 

and operating in a legislative vacuum to 

maximise the benefits.” 

Warning that “a business is only 

sustainable if labour rights are respected”, 

the letter argues that “rules are needed to 

ensure that those digital labour platforms, 

which do not operate with genuine selfemployed 

workers, do not evade their 

responsibility through imposing bogus 

self-employment”. 

The letter also explains that 

malpractices within the platform economy 

“erode the working conditions and quality 

of life of workers and also affect negatively 

traditional industry and public revenues”. 

The platform economy is not a separate 

silo of the economy, the letter adds, so a 

regulatory instrument at EU level should 

set minimum standards of protection to 

safeguard workers’ rights. 

The signatories also argue that 

platform workers must have access to 

social protection, as acknowledged in 

the European Pillar of Social Rights. It 

adds that the proposed directive should 

prevent digital work platforms from 

developing their own unilateral private 

protection schemes. “Such private and 

non-transferable schemes can create 

a lock-in effect by providing for social 

dependence on the digital work platform 

and therefore produce a dumping with 

traditional companies,” it says. 

The signatories also express reservations 

with regards to the methodology used for 

the Commission’s impact assessment 

and warns that “the number of bogus 

self-employed workers in digital labour 

platforms exceeds extensively the 

estimate of 5.51 million.” The Commission 

estimates that the number of platform 

workers will grow to 42.7 million in the 

EU-27 by 2030. 

“Hoping that you share our ambition 

for an economy that works for people and 

supports European companies, we urge 

you to take the steps that will make the 

current proposal stronger,” says the letter. 

The letter says the survey on NGT – 

which invited Euro Coop and the other 

organisations to contribute – “was already 

characterised by strong bias regarding the 

tone, content, and questions and response 

options, which together appeared to 

be formulated to weaken the existing 

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) 

regulation.” 

The signatories claim the survey 

was “biased in favour of far-reaching 

deregulation of GMOs in agriculture 

and food” and, as such, “answering the 

targeted survey was impossible for many 

stakeholders.” They add that the policy 

scenarios for new GMOs should have 

been made public and that “sustainability 

must be assessed separately from the 

genetic modification regulation and the 

assessment must be based on evidence 

and clear objectives and be reviewed by 

independent authorities”. 

The letter urges the Commission 

“to repeat those parts of the impact 

assessment on NGTs that fall short of the 

required standards”. 

“More broadly,” it adds, “we ask the 

EU Commission to follow the ECJ decision 

that NGTs products must be considered 

GMOs and regulated as such. Possible 

NGTs deregulation would put at risk the 

environment, food safety, consumers’ 

and farmers’ right to choose, as well as 

the organic, conventional, and non-GMO 

sectors.” 

A spokesperson from the European 

Commission’s DG SANTE said: “The 

Commission consults in full transparency 

with stakeholders having various scientific 

expertise. Their feedback and views will 

be taken into account by the Commission 

in the policy process. Since the start 

of this process we have encouraged all 

stakeholders to be as active as possible 

and provide us with their views and expert 

advice. We are confident all the different 

views within the scientific community are 

covered by this broad consultation.” 


UKRAINE 

Credit union numbers fall as Russian shelling worsens 

The number of Ukrainian credit unions, 

members and assets is declining due to 

ongoing Russian attacks on the country. 

Membership of the All-Ukrainian 

Credit Union Association (AUCUA) has 

dropped from 63 active credit unions on 

31 December, 2021 to 53 by 30 June, 2022. 

In the same timespan, membership of the 

Ukrainian National Association of Savings 

and Credit Unions (UNASCU) dropped 

from 53 to 40 member credit unions. 

Ukrainian membership of credit unions 

also dropped by 16% and the sector’s 

assets have declined by 28%. 

During October, Russia launched its 

most extensive attacks on Ukraine in 

months, with a focus on energy facilities. 

Many of Ukraine’s credit unions are located 

in areas where energy infrastructure has 

been destroyed, meaning they can only 

operate for a few hours each day due to 

rolling blackouts. 

Last month the World Council of Credit 

Unions (Woccu) reported that the houses 

of more than 10 credit union members 

and employees in the Zaporizhzhia region 

of Ukraine were damaged or destroyed by 

Russian shelling, and one credit union in 

the Dnipro Region has had to reduce its 

opening hours to conserve energy. 

Occurrences like this have become 

commonplace since Russia began 

ramping up attacks across Ukraine, says 

Woccu. 

AUCUA and UNASCU are working with 

the National Bank of Ukraine, which 

regulates the country’s credit unions, 

to support credit unions that are still 

operating. 

Woccu is continuing its support for 

AUCUA and UNASCU. The global trade 

association and development platform for 

credit unions is offering advice to both of 

its member credit union associations on 

how to handle the crisis they are facing, 

through its International Advocacy 

team and the USAID-funded Credit for 

Agriculture Producers (CAP) Project. 

UKRAINE 

17,000 gallons of fuel donated to Ukrainian credit union member farmers 

As the scarcity and price of fuel in Ukraine 

increases, over 17,000 gallons of diesel 

fuel is being distributed to farmers via the 

country’s credit unions, just in time for 

the autumn harvest. 

Through its Fuel Disbursement Program, 

the World Council of Credit Unions’ 

(WOCCU) charitable arm, the Worldwide 

Foundation for Credit Unions (WFCU), has 

provided 1,329 free fuel coupons to 163 

farmers who took out agricultural loans 

at credit unions as part of the USAID/ 

WOCCU Credit for Agriculture Producers 

(CAP) project. 

The CAP project, which started in 2016, 

aims to strengthen the Ukrainian credit 

union sector enabling better access to 

credit for farmers in the country. 

“In these difficult times for our country, 

even under Russia’s constant shelling, 

Ukrainian farmers continue to operate 

and care about our food security. 

“As credit unions, we are happy we 

can support them, not only through the 

needed finance, but also—thanks to our 

international partners and friends—to 

p Credit Union Anisia CEO (left) presenting fuel coupons to a member farmer 

ensure they have diesel for the autumn 

harvest season,” said Volodymyr 

Sidorovsky, CEO of Credit Union 

Anisia, who provided fuel coupons to 

27 farmers. 

The Fuel Disbursement program is 

part of a wider set of activities being 

undertaken by WFCU, called the 

Ukrainian Credit Union Displacement 

Fund. The Displacement Fund has also 

provided USD $100,000 of assistance to 

eligible CAP-partner credit union member 

farmers in the form of partial loan 

reimbursements, as well as a $50,000 

grant to a Ukrainian NGO working to 

support refugees in the Vinnytsia region of 

western Ukraine. 

To donate to the Ukrainian Credit Union 

Displacement Fund, visit bit.ly/3UgmhJj. 


CANADA 

Housing co-ops 

beat the market on 

affordability, report shows 

A report comparing rents in five Canadian 

cities found that co-op apartment rents 

were consistently lower than market 

apartment rents over the 2006-2021 study 

period. 

The study, commissioned by the 

Co-operative Housing Federation of 

Canada (CHFC), compared the housing 

rents in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, 

Toronto and Ottawa. It comes at a time of 

renewed government interest in the sector, 

with federal plans for a CA$500m (£315m) 

investment in co-op house building. 

One of the report’s main findings was 

that for one and two-bedroom apartments, 

co-op rents were about 25% lower than 

market early in the period (75% of market 

rents), declining by the end to one third 

lower than market (67% of market). 

It says the widening gap between coop 

and market rents was driven by the 

greater rate of annual increase in market 

rents (3% to 4% annually versus 2% to 3% 

in co-ops); this applied in most cities and 

sub-periods and was most pronounced 

as market rents escalated in 2016-2021. 

As such, the rent gap between co-op and 

private sector one- and two-bedroom 

apartments was mostly between CA$150 

(£94) and $250 (£157) per month in the 

early years, increasing to $400 (£258) to 

$500 (£315) monthly by the later years. 

Figures varied across the cities and 

among accommodation types, the report 

adds, while Canadian housing cooperatives 

also tend to provide homes 

for disadvantaged communities, such as 

lone parent households or ethnic minority 

residents. 

In light of the report’s findings, CHFC 

argues that public investment which 

supported the construction and operation 

of housing co-ops in their early years 

provided a “long term payoff”. 

NCBA CLUSA leads project for climate-smart agriculture 

US national co-op apex NCBA CLUSA 

has announced a US$15m (£12.6m) pilot 

project to build climate-smart markets 

in Puerto Rican agriculture. Funded 

by the US Department of Agriculture 

(USDA), the programme will help coffee, 

citrus fruits, plantains, bananas, cacao 

and lumber growers adopt climatesmart 

agriculture. 

Five Nepalese co-ops accused of embezzlement 

Kathmandu Metropolitan City’s 

Department of Cooperatives has received 

complaints from 633 member depositors 

who claim their co-ops embezzled Rs 

40.05m (£270,000). According to a 

report in local paper My Republica, the 

complaints were filed in the first three 

months of the current fiscal year. 

Co-ops among the world’s top female-friendly companies 

Forbes magazine has published a list of the 

world’s most female-friendly companies, 

identifying 400 enterprises that excel in 

championing women at work. It features 

four co-operatives, one employee owned 

enterprise and four mutual insurers, 

including Desjardins Group, John Lewis 

Partnership, Unipol Group, Crédit Agricole 

and Crédit Mutuel. 

Coop Italia removes 42 tons of plastic from the sea 

Retailer Coop Italia is helping to clear the 

Italian seas of plastic by installing trasheating 

devices, using offshore drones 

and employing scuba diving teams. The 

co-op presented an update on its A sea 

of ideas for our waters project at the 

Barcolana Sea Summit, held in Trieste on 

5-7 October. 

UAE’s new co-op law comes into effect in December 

The UAE Ministry of Economy says its 

new law for co-operatives will come into 

effect in December. Designed to boost 

the sector’s contribution to national GDP 

from 1% to 5%, the law introduces a series 

of provisions to help co-ops grow. These 

include allowing co-operatives operating 

in one emirate to expand activity to 

other emirates with the approval of the 

local authorities. 


MEET 

Tim Coomer 

Co-operative and Community 

Finance 

This month we speak to Tim Coomer, business development manager 

at Co-operative and Community Finance (CCF). CCF is the trading 

name of the Industrial Common Ownership Finance Ltd (ICOF) family 

of businesses, which was set up in 1973, and remains democratically 

owned and controlled by the members. CCF exclusively serves the 

co-operative and social enterprise sector, and for nearly 50 years has 

supported hundreds of businesses ranging from small community‐run 

enterprises to large award‐winning organisations. 

HOW DID YOU FIRST COME ACROSS 

CO-OPERATIVES? 

My background is in retail. I was working for the 

Rural Community Council in Wiltshire, and I 

ran a project in the southwest partly supporting 

community shops – and found the Plunkett 

Foundation. I managed a couple of different 

community and rural economy programmes 

over the years, including a Good Neighbours 

Scheme and a small loan fund. Co-operative and 

Community Finance (CCF) was lending to a lot 

of community shops at the time, through what 

was called the Village Core Programme with the 

Plunkett Foundation. Through that scheme I got to 

know the CCF team and so when a job came up with 

them, I applied, and that was that! 

WHAT DOES CCF DO? 

We’re basically a lender, a finance company. We 

lend about a million pounds a year, but we only 

lend to co-operatives, so we’re quite niche in the 

We were born out of the need to 

finance the co-op sector because 

the mainstream banks weren’t really 

supporting them. 

wider social investment sector. We lend anything 

from £10,000 to £150,000 to community businesses 

and co-ops of different sizes in different sectors, 

including traditional worker co-ops and employeeowned 

businesses, as well as more commonly 

community hubs, pubs and all sorts of community 

led co-ops. 

We have a slightly complicated structure because 

over the years we have created a portfolio of different 

companies to raise and lend funds underneath the 

CCF banner, and we also manage, loan funds and 

back-office functions for other people. We provide 

loan management for organisations like the Coop 

Foundation, and have previously provided 

services to social investors like Big Issue Invest. 

That’s something we’re also going to build on in the 

next few years as we have invested in a new loan 

management system and will be looking for new 

clients. It’s going to be busy. 

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE CCF SUCCESS 

STORIES? 

The pubs programme has been very successful; 

in the last six years, the number of communityowned 

pubs has gone from a few to over a 

hundred, now. We also love to see worker co-ops 

come through. I think it’s been difficult in recent 

years for worker co-ops, but that’s what we were 

originally set up to support and what we want to 

do more of. Community Shares is another thing 

that’s really taken off for us, and we also manage 

funds; we have a small pot community share 

investment funding, and next year, we’re going into 

a partnership with Co-operatives UK to invest more 


into the community shares sector; so we’ll see how 

that goes. 

NEXT YEAR IS ALSO CCF’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY – 

WHAT HAVE YOU GOT PLANNED? 

We’re in the planning stage at the moment, but 

we’re working on a new strategy for CCF for the next 

50 years. We also want to look back a little bit as we 

have always been part of the movement – we were 

part of ICOM (which merged with the Co-op Union 

to become Co-operatives UK). We were born out of 

the need to finance the co-op sector because the 

mainstream banks weren’t really supporting them. 

We’ll hold events throughout the year, including a 

gala dinner at some point, and raise the profile of 

what we do. 

WHAT HAVE BEEN THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES 

OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS? 

Prior to Covid-19, things were pretty good and fairly 

steady. We were lending a good amount of money 

and there was a good pipeline of deals coming 

through. But Covid struck us totally, the pipeline 

disappeared, and we went into ‘protect-theportfolio’ 

mode. We were supporting our borrowers 

as much as we could through that period, staying 

in close contact, listening to them and reducing 

repayment amounts. 

After Covid, everything started to unlock again, 

and there was a lot of enthusiasm in the sector to 

get things going. But with the economy and cost of 

living crisis now, it’s going to be a real challenge 

again. We’re seeing some borrowers starting to 

have real cashflow problems, and are looking 

again at how we can support them into next year, 

which is going to be uncomfortable for everybody, 

obviously, but hopefully there will be some shining 

lights within all that. 

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO 

OVER THE NEXT 20-50 YEARS? 

It will be interesting to see how the new worker coop 

federal works and how they can then support 

more worker co-ops into the sector. The Barefoot 

Practitioner Network is also really exciting because, 

as we know, the practitioner network is ageing, 

and there are fewer people who understand about 

co-ops and the development of the community 

business world. Despite the short term issues 

there’s a lot to be excited about for the future. 

150 years of independent, co-operative journalism 

150 years of independent, co-operative journalism 

150 years of independent, co-opera 15 

FEBRUARY 2021 

WHAT’S NEXT 

FOR THE CO-OP 

MOVEMENT? 

Plus … How Brexit wi l 

affect co-op businesses ... 

Latest statistics from the 

World Co-op Monitor... The 

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Full coverage of the ICA’s 33rd 

JANUARY 2022 World Cooperative Congress 

Plus … Launch of the 10th 

World Cooperative Monitor … 

‘DEEPENING 

Interview 

OUR 

with Rob Harrison, 

COOPERATIVE author of The IDENTITY’ 

Handbook 

of Ethical Purchasing … 

Full coverage MPs of debate the debate ICA’s the 33rd 

contribution of co-ops and 

World Cooperative mutuals to the Congress 

UK 

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news news Issue #7327 JANUARY 2021 


JANUARY 2022 

Full coverage of the ICA’s 33rd 

World Cooperative Congress 



Interview with Rob Harrison, 

author of The Handbook 

of Ethical Purchasing … 

MPs debate debate the 


mutuals to the UK 

DECEMBER 2021 

PEER LEARNING 

The strength of co-ops 

learning together 

Plus … Lessons co-op 

organising from Cincinnati … 

A co-operative future DECEMBER for the 2021 

waterways? … How Blair Ki led 

the Co-ops: a review … and 

Part 2 of our Co-op Christmas 

Gift Guide PEER LEARNING 

The 

learning strength together 

of co-ops 

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the Co-ops: a review … a 

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Gift Guide 

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WHY AREN’T 

THERE MORE 

JANUARY 2021 

CO-OPS? 

WHY AREN’T 

THERE MORE Plus … New international 

CO-OPS? working group for UK co-ops 

... Kay Johnson’s work on food 

fairness in Preston ... New York 

Plus … New international 

working group for taxi UK drivers co-ops launch fundraiser 

... Kay Johnson’s for work platform on food co-op 

fairness in Preston ... New York 

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MOVEMENT? 

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A co-operative future for the 

waterways? … How Blair Killed 

the Co-ops: a review … and 

Part 2 of our Co-op Christmas 

Gift Guide 

Plus … Lessons in co-op 

DECEMBER 2021 

PEER LEARNING 

The strength of co-ops 

learning together 

Plus … The co-ops tackling 

global deforestation ... Mark 

Drakeford Robert Owen at 

250 ... A new chaper for the 

New Internationalist ... Retail 

results round-up 

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JUNE 2021 

THE FUTURE OF 

CO-OPERATIVE 

LEARNING 

MAY 2021 Connecting, championing, cha lenging 

Connecting, championing, cha lenging 

AUGUST 2021 

MAY 2021 

HOW CO-OP 

DEMOCRACY 

PLAYS OUT 

Plus … Credit unions 

consider the merger question 

... A globa look at youth 

empowerment ... Robert Owen: 

anniversary of a co-op icon ... 

Nigel Todd: A tribute 

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APRIL 2021 

IS RESILIEN 

BUILT INT 

CO-OP 

£

OBITUARIES 

Tributes paid as Sewa founder Ela Bhatt dies at 89 

Tributes from around the world poured 

in on social media following the death of 

Indian co-operative organiser and activist 

Ela Bhatt. 

Born on 7 September 1933 in 

Ahmedabad, Bhatt grew up in the city of 

Surat before attending the Sir L.A. Shah 

Law College in Ahmedabad. She obtained 

a BA in English from M.T.B. College before 

taking a law degree at the Sir L.A. Shah 

Law College in Ahmedabad. 

In 1955 she joined the Textile Labour 

Association (TLA), the country’s largest 

union of textile workers where, alongside 

Arvind Buch, she worked to empower selfemployed 

women in the textile industry. 

During her time there, she studied at 

the Afro-Asian Institute of Labour and 

Cooperation in Tel Aviv, obtaining an 

International Diploma of Labour and 

Cooperatives in 1971. 

Her efforts to empower women 

culminated with the creation of the Self 

Employed Women’s Association of India 

(SEWA) in 1972, with Buch as its president 

and Bhatt as general secretary, a role she 

held until 1996. During this time, she also 

helped to set up India’s first women’s 

bank, the Cooperative Bank of SEWA. 

In addition to her involvement in SEWA 

and TLA, she founded and served as chair 

of Women’s World Banking (WWB), the 

International Alliance of Home-based 

Workers (HomeNet), Street Vendors 

(StreetNet) and Women in Informal 

Employment: Globalizing, Organizing. 

Bhatt was chair of Sabarmati 

Ashram Trust and chancellor of the 

Gujarat Vidyapith university, recently 

giving up the latter role due to health 

considerations. She had also served as 

trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation 

and was a member of the Council of 

The Elders, formed by Nelson Mandela, 

since 2007. 

Her work gained her various accolades, 

including the Indira Gandhi International 

Prize for Peace, Disarmament and 

Development, the CGAE Human Rights 

Award and the Freedom from Want Medal 

by Roosevelt Institute of Netherlands. 

Known as the “gentle revolutionary”, 

Bhatt was a keynote speaker at the World 

Cooperative Congress in 2021, where she 

reaffirmed her lifelong commitment to the 

co-operative identity. “The co-operative is 

an answer to poverty in any country,” she 

said at the time. 

SEWA Federation confirmed the death 

of its founder via a social media post. “It is 

with profound grief that we announce the 

passing away of our beloved and respected 

founder, Smt. Elaben Bhatt. A pioneer in 

advocating for women workers’ rights, we 

strive to carry her legacy forward,” it said. 

“Many an epithet has been used to 

celebrate her — the gentle revolutionary, 

the Mahatma of “shramjeevi” (working) 

women, and more,” said Mirai Chatterjee, 

Sewa chair. “For us, her Sewa sisters, and 

thousands across India and the globe, Ela 

Bhatt was simply “ben” (sister).” 

Several co-operative apexes and 

individual co-operators paid tribute to 

Bhatt on social media. 

“We are saddened to hear about the 

demise of Ms Elaben Bhatt, the visionary 

founder of SEWA Federation, India. She 

was a co-operator by thought and action 

and a pioneer in advocating for women 

workers’ rights. Our thoughts and prayers 

are with her family, SEWA workers, and 

staff!” said the International Co-operative 

Alliance’s Asia-Pacific office. 

ICA-AP regional director Balu Iyer 

added: “We are saddened to hear about 

the passing of Ela Bhatt. She was a pioneer 

in the field of co-operatives who was at 


the fore promoting rights of women, 

empowering informal workers, and 

building solid institutions. Thoughts and 

prayers to her family and staff at SEWA.” 

Bruno Roelants, director general of 

the ICA, said: “Ela Bhatt will remain in 

history as one of the key co-operative 

thinkers and pioneers. 

“I am happy that we could all hear 

her at the ICA 33rd World Co-operative 

Congress, where her speech was very 

much listened to and had a strong echo. 

She has been a strong source of inspiration 

for decades, I will keep treasuring 

her memory” 

Speaking on behalf of the UK’s 

International Co-operative Working 

Group, Co-operatives UK CEO Rose 

Marley said: “We would like to express 

our deepest condolences for the loss of 

Elaben Bhatt. 

“As the Founder and visionary in 

finding practical ways to collectively lift 

women out of poverty with dignity, we 

understand the significance this loss 

will have on SEWA. Visionary leadership 

is crucial in today’s troubled world, 

and we’re certain the women of SEWA 

will continue to lead from that shared 

heart of social justice (love in action).” 

John Anderson (1943-2022) 

The UK movement is mourning the loss 

of Scottish co-operator John Anderson, 

who has died aged 79. He served he cooperatives 

for 52 years, having started his 

working career at Invicta Co-op. 

As his career progressed, John worked 

in the Royal Arsenal Co-op as assistant 

non-food manager, before joining the 

Scottish Wholesale Society in Glasgow as 

a development manager in 1971. Following 

this position, he undertook the role of chief 

executive officer and secretary of North 

Tayside, Kilwinning and Strathaven, until 

the society transferred engagements to 

Scotmid in 1998. He then served on the 

Scotmid Board and represented members 

from the North of Scotland’s Regional 

Committee. 

John acted as a director of Co-operatives 

UK for more than 30 years and served on 

the Boards of Trafford Press, Co-operative 

Wholesale Society and Co-operative 

Press (which publishes Co-op News). 

In addition, he was a member of – and 

served on – the Central Executive Co-op 

Union and Co-op Party NEC. 

Born in Prestonpans, the son of Jimmy 

and Bel, John was the middle of five 

children. After studying Economics in 

Edinburgh, he went on to study at the 

Co-operative college in Loughborough. 

Shortly after graduating, he married 

Aileen, his childhood sweetheart. In 1974, 

his career took them to Montrose; the town 

the Andersons made their forever home. 

John was heavily involved in his local 

community. He was a founding director 

of Radio Tay, and took on several roles on 

local boards, including: chair of Montrose 

Academy Board; member of the Board 

of Governors for the Rossie Approved 

School; non-executive director of Angus 

NHS Trust; chair of Montrose Community 

Council; vice-chair of the Montrose Port 

Authority; and a director of children’s 

charity, Total Golf. He was president 

and secretary of Montrose Rotary Club, 

and was awarded the Paul Harris trophy. 

He was captain, then match secretary of 

Royal Montrose Golf Club. 

John regularly returned to Midlothian 

to watch his beloved football team, 

Hearts FC, and to enjoy theatrical shows, 

especially enjoying the Edinburgh Fringe 

Festival. He leaves behind his dearly 

loved wife, Aileen, his children, Jennifer 

and Jeremy, son-in-law of Mark and 

grandchildren, Ruaraidh, Finlay, Verity, 

Toby, Ethan and Jason. 


Practical 

co-operation 

AT THE PRACTITIONERS 

FORUM 

p Osaro Otobo and Ali Wilson (seated) speaking at the Practitioners Forum (Images: Cooperatives 

UK / Chris Foster Photography) 

Co-operatives UK’s annual Practitioners 

Forum took place in Manchester at the 

end of November, bringing together 

people working in co-op businesses 

for a day of training and development. 

Twenty different sessions took place 

across five specialist forums, covering 

membership, governance, finance, HR 

and communications. 

With impacts from Brexit, Covid-19 

and the cost of living crises still buffeting 

businesses, many of the sessions looked 

at how co-ops can support and engage 

members, colleagues and communities 

at a time when they may be facing huge 

financial, social and health challenges. 

Trainer and consultant Sue Froggatt 

looked at how to go beyond transactional 

relationships with members, to engage 

them as owners of their co-operative 

and encourage them to be involved in 

governance activities. And attendees 

heard updates on data protection, 

employment law and accounts and 

financial reporting, plus legal updates 

from Anthony Collins Solicitors. 

In a very practical communications 

forum, Tony Ball (Co-op Group) looked 

into the art of creating successful email 

campaigns, while former journalist Dan 

Slee walked through how to produce 

successful marketing campaigns – and 

navigate the social media maze. 

Slee stressed the importance of data 

when planning social media strategies, 

quoting W Edwards Denning: “Without 

data, you’re just another person with an 

opinion”. And he highlighted how social 

media “isn’t just a young person’s game, 

it’s a majority pastime”, although where 

you find different people changes. 

“Over 55s will be on platforms like 

Facebook and Nextdoor,” he said, adding 

that it is a misconception that Tiktok is 

only used by young people, evidenced 

by the platform’s sponsoring of events 

such as the Euros and Six Nations, mostly 

attended by over 25s. 

There is also a difference in why 

platforms are used, he said. “There’s 

a public versus private split. Facebook 

vs Messenger. Instagram vs Instagram 

messenger. Younger people use social 

media to talk to friends and communicate 

in the same way people born in the 70s 

and earlier would use the landline.” 

He advised co-ops to think about what 

will trigger people to engage with content, 

highlighting marketing expert Prof. 

Jonah Berger’s six reasons that people 

share content: social currency (they’ll 

look good); triggers (it’s every day); 

emotional performance (does it make 

you feel something?); public (is it open 

and accessible?); practical value (does it 

help?); and storytelling. Storytelling is the 

key, he added. Successful campaigns have 

an 80/20 split between storytelling and 

calls to action. 

“The secret sauce to all this is algorithms 

and good content,” Slee said, “and 

algorithms don’t like links that take you 

off a site – so they’ll show it less often.” 

A workaround for this, he said, is to put 

any link as the first comment under a post. 

“Vary the content, don’t repeat things, 

even images. And include video content 

as much as you can. Universal content 

is over. Make something bespoke for 

different platforms.” 

Diversity in the boardroom was another 

key theme. The lack of young people in 

boardrooms is an issue plaguing most coops 

– but there is a clear business case for 

including people under 30 in governance, 

according to Ali Wilson. 

Wilson is a comedian, producer and 

artist, currently working as an assistant 

producer at the BBC. She is also vicechair 

of Manchester’s Contact Theatre, 

which has a commitment to having 50% 

of people on the board aged under 30. The 

chair is Junior Akinola, who, when he was 

elected, became the youngest chair of any 

major performing arts venue in the UK. 

The organisation made the decision to 

actively include young people because 

Contact has a focus on skill building, 

and “if they are everywhere in the 

building, they need to be everywhere 

in the organisation, including being 

present at highest levels of governance,” 

Wilson said. “But young people are also 

on the board because they are the future. 

Whether or not your co-op works with 

young people, youth culture is culture, 

not a group to be kept at arm’s length.” 

Young people seeing themselves 

represented at board level has resulted in 

a culture where young people feel valued 

and their voices are heard, Wilson added. 

“Our lives are most similar to those of the 

youth we serve. And because young board 

members don’t come from a corporate 

background, they don’t have jargon to 

hand, and ask questions directly. We’re 

not interested in leaving people out of the 

discussions just because they don’t know 

the lingo.” 

At contact, everyone who joins the 

board receives training, regardless of age, 

and there is a mentoring budget available 

to trustees. The organisation has also 

adapted its understanding of ‘expertise’: 

“Young people are experts in other areas, 

like resilience on a low income, freelance 

pay, how to juggle multiple jobs and 

different time pressures,” Wilson said. 

“If your co-op isn’t willing to bring young 


people onto your board, ask yourself 

why. Look at your board. The majority 

of directors, even in co-ops, are white, 

middle-aged and middle-class. Nothing 

will change if nothing is done.” 

Osaro Otobo, deputy chair of the 

British Youth Council shared how the 

organisation brings young people together 

to find their voice and improve the lives of 

young people. She shared her own early 

board experiences – “some good, some 

bad” – as a postgraduate trustee at her 

university. 

“I experienced racism at board level 

from another trustee, and also felt young 

people’s voices were not supported. They 

weren’t asked to write board papers, 

and weren’t trained.” In comparison, 

the British youth council is “truly youth 

led. Everyone is 16-25 when elected or 

appointed, and equality, diversity and 

inclusion is a top priority.” 

She advised co-ops to “use clear 

and simple language through various 

mediums” when recruiting young board 

members and work with specialised 

charities, networks and groups that 

work with young people, including the 

British Youth Council and the Young 

Trustees movement. “Boards improve 

their decision making from having diverse 

perspectives, skills and experience in the 

room - this includes young people.” 

This was echoed by Sue Johnson 

(Berwick Partners), who explored the 

steps co-operatives can take to ensure 

board diversity. “We are all unique,” she 

said, “and often it’s the hidden things that 

are the most interesting. The unique skills, 

knowledge, experiences and perspectives 

– that’s where the richness is in terms of 

diversity.” 

YOUR VIEWS 

Rochdale Boroughwide 

Housing under fi e over 

child’s death 

The Coroner and the parents have 

done the right thing, releasing the 

name, age and photo of the child 

to the public. I would be surprised 

if more mould deaths coroner’s 

proceedings don’t become public in 

the next month’s and year. Design, 

heating and ventilation across the 

sector is going to get worse with 

the impacts of more expensive 

association borrowing, inflation in 

buildings management and energy 

costs , before we see it get better. 

The families, friends and 

neighbours won’t be trusting RBH, 

their current estate rep and cooperation 

for some time, I should 

think. 

Luke Blakey, via website 

This is not a learning exercise – how 

dare they say this about the death of 

this little boy. RBH and Swarbrick 

should be ashamed of themselves 

and more people need to be sacked 

over the total disregard of this family. 

I hope other councils take note. 

Lisa Kearney, Via Twitter 

Ela Bhatt, 1933-2022 

Oh no. A legendary #coops figure 

and representative of Sewa. Our own 

Midcounties Co-operative Childcare 

have Ella, one of the Little Pioneers, 

named after her as a true inspiration 

for future generations. 

Pete Westall, Coop Midcounties 

Have your say 

Add your comments to our stories 

online at thenews.coop, get in 

touch via social media, or send us 

a letter. If sending a letter, please 

include your address and contact 

number. Letters may be edited and 

no longer than 350 words. 

Co-ops pay tribute to 

Queen Elizabeth II 

Unlike some bigger co-ops, the 

Tamworth Society completely closed 

its 12 food stores on the day of the 

Queen’s funeral (September 19) and 

none of the premises were manned, 

although the 24-hour service provided 

by Tamworth Co-op funeral homes 

remained in operation as usual. 

It is highly unusual for us to close 

our food stores for an entire day – in 

fact it normally only ever happens 

on Christmas Day. I understand that 

some retailers opened later in the 

day, but we did not wish to do that. 

We appreciate the tremendous 

significance of the occasion and 

the esteem in which the late Queen 

Elizabeth II is held. We felt we had 

to make a meaningful and heartfelt 

tribute to her. This is our way of 

acknowledging her extraordinary 70- 

year reign and the love and affection 

that we have for her. 

We are confident that our shoppers 

and members supported the decision 

to close all our convenience stores 

and understand the reasons for it. 

This also gave them the time and 

opportunity to pay their own respects. 

Julian Coles 

CEO, Tamworth Co-operative 

Correction: 

In the article ‘Co-op Insurance and LV= 

partner with Amazon on its comparison 

site’ (Co-op News, November), we 

stated that LV= mutual was partnering 

with Amazon. This is not the case; it 

is the separate business LV= General 

Insurance – now part of Allianz – 

which is entering the arrangement. 

Co-operative News, Holyoake House, 

Hanover Street, Manchester M60 0AS 

letters@thenews.coop 

@coopnews 

Co-operative News 


Co-op councils mark 

their tenth anniversary 

WITH A LOOK AT COMMUNITY WEALTH STRATEGIES 

By Miles Hadfiel 

The Co-operative Councils Innovation Network 

held its tenth anniversary conference in 

Telford in November, looking at ways to embed 

grassroots co-op ideas in communities. 

Steve Reed, Labour Co-op MP, shadow justice 

secretary and honorary president of CCIN, said 

Labour is finally facing the prospect of national 

power – but warned that the party still has to 

make a positive offer to inspire voters. 

This positive offer can be found in co-op 

councils, he suggested. “While Labour nationally 

needed to rebuild trust, our best Labour councils 

were already doing it and also forging a new way 

to run public services … Our public services work 

better when we do things with people rather 

than to people.” 

Reed said politicians can regain public trust 

by showing trust in the public; building on 

this idea, the CCIN has created the biggest, and 

fastest-growing, network in local government. 

CCIN’s ideas are also being fed up to national 

level, he added, citing Keir Starmer’s recent 

pledge for a National Wealth Fund, building 

on the ideas of community wealth building 

introduced to the UK by Preston Council. 

Noting that CCIN is a non-partisan 

organisation, Reed said it was “really important 

that this network has members from all parties 

that believe in this direction”. There is a split 

in politics that is not left / right but about 

localisation or centralisation of power”, he 

argued; this makes devolution more important 

than electoral reform, he believes. 

Reed was followed by a panel presenting 

examples of co-op thinking. Cllr Steve Foster, 

leader of South Ribble Council, gave a 

presentation on the recent CCIN fact-finding 

trip to the Mondragon Co-op Federation in the 

Basque Country, Spain. Mondragon’s successes 

are well documented but Cllr Foster fears the 

model would be hard to replicate in the UK, 

thanks to the “cultural challenges we face 

around collective action, shared prosperity, the 

loss of hope and individualism”. But, he added, 

“we do have the political will to encourage food 

bank co-operatives, small business start-ups as 

co-operatives, and then provide the critical seed 

funding to support them”. His cabinet has just 

awarded its first procurement contract to a coop, 

he said. 

Marc Hooper from Banc Cambria – a Welsh 

community bank which is in the planning stage, 

with cross-party support in the Senedd – said 

mutuals can offer an alternative to “extractive” 


high street banks. The five big UK banks 

handle 92% personal accounts but are closing 

branches, taking capital out of communities and 

sometimes using customers’ money for unethical 

investments such as fossil fuels. Compared to 

Germany, where two-fifths of banks are small, 

regional or co-operative banks, or the US, where 

credit unions enjoy substantial market share, 

the UK is “an outlier”, said Hooper. “We are 

doing it wrong.” 

Derek Walker, CEO of Welsh co-operative 

development agency Cwmpas, highlighted his 

organisation’s work developing co-op models 

in sectors such as housing and care; he urged 

councils in England to create co-operative 

development agencies, or support existing ones, 

so they can replicate such projects. 

“We need to create a fairer, more co-operative 

economy in your local areas,” he said. “You 

do require the support of experts and co-op 

development agencies and they don’t exist in 

every part of the country and sometimes are not 

very well resourced.” 

Walker suggested means to remedy this, 

including using money from the Shared 

Prosperity Fund. 

Rose Marley, CEO of Co-operatives UK, gave an 

overview of the UK sector, with examples of new 

start-ups including a co-op of GP surgeries in 

Dundee, set up to attract practitioners who had 

been reluctant to come to the area. She pointed 

councils towards funding mechanisms such as 

community share offers, and to the support that 

Co-operatives UK itself can offer. 

Shabir Pandor, leader of Kirklees Council, 

discussed efforts to build a more inclusive 

economy in an area whose 433,000 residents 

are spread across a mix of towns and villages, 

with high levels of inequality that leave 36% of 

children in poverty. In response the council is 

directing its £1bn public spend to deliver social 

value in procurement, trying to ensure that it 

is itself an inclusive employer, and using asset 

transfers to the community to ensure the flexible 

use of town centre spaces. 

Side events included a presentation by Mark 

Cook, from Anthony Collins Solicitors, on 

coming changes to the law which will affect 

councils’ ability to deliver community wealth 

building through procurement. 

The Procurement Bill going through 

Parliament “offers less flexibility in my view”, 

said Cook, before setting out ways councils can 

“work harder to get what they want out of it”. 

This includes “checking your powers”, 

identifying the short and long-term policy basis 

for action, and including these details in the 

business case for a project. 

Project management is important, he added, 

so that if a large firm loses out on a contract to 

a group of SMEs, they can be satisfied that the 

terms of the deal were met and that the process 

was fairly conducted. And it is vital that the 

subject matter of a contract reflects the desired 

policy behind it. 

Cook suggested the process of delivering 

social value could be facilitated by creating 

co-operatives of councils, businesses and 

deliverers to run contracts. 

In another side session, Mark Simmonds, an 

advisor at Co-op Culture, looked at how councils 

can offer business support to co-ops, and at 

the issue of training for development workers. 

He is working with Stir To Action to set up a 

development course, the Co-operative Option. 

He said the onus is not just on councils to reach 

out to co-ops to offer development support; coops 

also need to be more proactive in accessing 

the support that councils already offer. They can 

miss out on this help because it is often couched 

in terms suitable to solo entrepreneurs and 

other conventional business models; but these 

schemes can still be beneficial, said Simmonds, 

as they offer capital grants and funds for 

sustainability and innovation. 

There are around 50 co-op development 

bodies around the UK which would benefit 

from local authority support, he added. And 

as an example of how local authorities can get 

involved in specific projects, he discussed a co-op 

he is helping to set up in Calderdale, west 

Yorkshire. This related to the Biodiversity Net 

Gain requirement, which means developers 

must more than make up for loss of biodiversity 

from a project by buying biodiversity units 

elsewhere. Simmonds is working with farmers 

to create a multi-stakeholder co-op which could 

offer these units. 

Highlighting the power of cross-party 

working, Green peer Baroness Bennett of 

Manor Castle gave a speech stressing the need 

to engage communities to deliver innovation in 

sustainability. Options for councils could be as 

simple as planting verges with wildflowers. 

She said grassroots working could help build 

a model of democracy where parties work 

together, ending the seesaw of policy where 

successive governments overturn the work of 

their predecessors. “I’m happy to work with 

councillors from any party,” she said. “If you 

have an issue I am happy to table a question 

about it.” 

“ 

“Mutuals 

can offer an 

alternative to 

'extractive' high 

street banks” 

– Marc Hooper 


ICMIF celebrates its centenary 

WITH GLOBAL GATHERING IN ROME 

By Anca Voinea 

q Rob Wesseling, the 

new chair of Icmif 

The International Cooperative and Mutual 

Insurance Federation (Icmif) held its centenary 

conference in Rome last week, with a series of 

events looking at issues such as sustainability, 

risk reduction and increasing access to insurance 

in vulnerable parts of the world. 

Drawing in over 400 delegates from more 

than 139 organisations across 41 countries, the 

event was hosted by the Unipol Group, a founder 

member of Icmif and one of the biggest insurance 

groups in Europe. 

Icmif chair Hilde Vernaillen said the 

organisation was launched as platform co-op 

and mutual insurers could share ideas in a noncompetitive 

environment. 

“Fast forward 100 years,” she added, “and 

that vision and purpose remains as true today. 

Icmif’s members have collectively achieved so 

much for the insurance sector through their 

willingness to share strategies and support each 

other and by focusing on the long-term needs of 

the people they serve.” 

The celebration comes at a time of progress for 

the sector, which has grown by 39% since 2007, 

exceeding the total worldwide insurance market 

growth (27.1%) by 11.9 percentage points, and 

grown its share of the total insurance market 

from 24% to 26.3% within the same period. 

Furthermore, according to Icmif’s latest Global 

Mutual Market Share 2022 report, over 70% 

of its members last year outperformed their 

local market’s annual growth. Icmif includes 

197 organisations across 60 countries, serves 

over 350 million members/policyholders and 

employs over 226 thousand people. 

Rob Wesseling appointed chair 

On 27 October, Icmif elected Rob Wesseling, 

president and CEO of Co-operators (Canada) as 

its chair for a four-year term. 

He said: “I’m delighted to take on this role 

at what is an important time in our sector. 

Through our work at Icmif we’ve demonstrated 

that the co-operative and mutual insurance 

sector is critical to building a better future. 

Together, we’re actively working towards a 

resilient, sustainable, and equitable future and 

I believe that, by working towards ambitious 

and aggressive targets in areas such as disaster 

risk reduction, sustainable development, and 

responsible investing, we will have a catalytic 

impact on the global insurance industry and, 

eventually, the economy as a whole.” 

CEO Shaun Tarbuck said: “I am delighted that 

Rob has accepted the position of Icmif chair. This 

is a very exciting time for the federation and its 

members. Under the leadership of our retiring 

chair Hilde Vernaillen, we have transformed 

Icmif into an organisation focused on helping our 

member companies achieve their strategic goals 

and sustainably grow in their local markets. We 

are very grateful to Hilde for her great support 

and commitment.” 


Focus on research 

As pre-event in Rome, the Mutual Research 

Network held its Mutual Insurance Conference, 

bringing together academics, students and 

insurance leaders to look at the meanings 

of mutuality in a post-Covid world, and to 

investigate and role of locally owned insurers 

and financial companies in a global economy. 

Luciano Dragonetti, president of Mutua MBA, 

talked about the ethos of mutuals in Italy, which 

remains the same: anyone can join and members 

are at the heart of the organisation. 

Roberto Anzanello, president of Health Italia, 

argued that a key challenge for insurers in the 

sector is to find the right balance between 

their mutual values and a focus on capital, 

investment, professionalism and management – 

areas where some for-profit insurers excel. 

Jacupo Cirio, welfare development manager 

at Hiwelfare, agreed that a complex modern 

world means co-op and mutual insurers need 

a stronger link with for-profit enterprises, and 

draw on the experience of different organisations 

to drive innovation. 

Luca Gaburro, president of trade union body 

Osservatorio Enbic, described the challenges 

faced by freelance workers in Italy, who are 

mostly under 35 and make up 13.8% of the 

population. Co-operative and mutual insurers 

have to consider how to best serve them, he said. 

Meanwhile in Africa, poverty and ill health 

are increasing the vulnerability of workers and 

affecting productivity. Nelson Kuria, chair of the 

CIC insurance group in Kenya, said co-ops and 

mutuals should do more to harness the power of 

co-operation in addressing these challenges in. 

The final session of the research conference 

presented the findings of a study by students, 

into how millennials and Gen Z see the mutual 

and co-operative sector. 

Younger generations are not familiar with 

mutual and co-op insurers, the survey found, but 

they are digitally oriented, which means there is 

potential for mutual and co-ops to reach out to 

them by working with the insurtech industry. 

The main conference, which began on 27 

October, featured keynote addresses by Ulrika 

Modéer, UN assistant secretary-general and 

director of the Bureau of External Relations 

and Advocacy, United Nations Development 

Programme (UNDP); and Mami Mizutori, special 

representative of the secretary-general at the UN 

Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (Undrr), who 

discussed the role of co-op and mutual insurers 

in addressing global challenges. 

Innovation fund launched 

Ahead of the main conference, UNDP and the 

Icmif Foundation, a charitable organisation, 

announced the launch of a new mechanism to 

promote innovative mutual insurance schemes 

to better protect the most vulnerable people in 

developing countries. 

The US$600,000 Innovation Challenge Fund 

will be overseen by UNDP’s Insurance and Risk 

Finance Facility and administered by the Icmif 

Foundation, and will support a minimum of four 

organisations over two to three years to scale 

their existing microinsurance programmes to 

reach new customers and markets in developing 

countries, with plans to significantly scale up 

the work into the future. 

“Expanding access to affordable insurance 

solutions specifically tailored to the needs of 

the poorest in developing countries is a priority 

to strengthen how they manage to cope through 

compounding crisis,” said Modéer. 

“When the worst happens, these communities 

are often the most affected and the least able to 

recover. Insurance is one of the key tools to avoid 

a downward spiral of debt and poverty.” 

Wesseling added: “Icmif is excited about this 

new joint endeavour with UNDP to support 

the world’s poorest communities and build 

resilience in the face of climate, health and other 

shocks. Mutual and co-operative insurers work 

with grassroots communities to co-create risk 

models and build education programmes that 

support risk mitigation and adaption. 

“This partnership will help scale access to 

affordable insurance for the people who need 

it most, building on the Icmif Foundation’s 5-5- 

5 Mutual Microinsurance Strategy which has 

reached 15 million people over the last five years.” 

p Ulrika Modéer and 

Rob Wesseling signing 

the agreement in 

Rome (image: Icmif) 

“ The conference 

was the 

largest global 

gathering of 

mutual and 

co-operative 

insurance 

leaders, 

featuring 

delegates from 

more than 139 

organisations 

across 41 

countries 


Exchanging knowledge 

and experience: 

ROSE MARLEY AND SARAH ALLDRED REPORT 

FROM BRAZIL’S WCM 2022 EVENT 


In October, Rose Marley, secretary general of 

Co-operatives UK, and Sarah Alldred, head of 

international partnerships at the Co-operative 

College, attended the World Coop Management 

conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

Organised by the Organization of Brazilian 

Cooperatives (OCB), the event looked at the role 

of technology and innovation in shaping the 

way co-operatives form and engage with their 

members and the wider world. 

“The timing of the conference was right in 

the middle of Brazil’s national elections,” says 

Alldred, “so I was curious how things would feel. 

There had been a clear rise in populism since 

Bolsanaro took power, the runoffs were close, 

and I wondered how the co-operative movement 

was responding to this (it was mixed).” 

She adds: “The event itself was impressive 

in scale and numbers attending. Brazil has a 

strong co-operative history – its movement 

was founded in 1889 in Minas Gerais. 

Currently, they have just under 7,000 co-ops 

covering a membership of 14.5 million. It 

was impressive to be in the middle of this – 

Brazil is a huge country, and the movement is 

equally huge. 

“As part of the conference mix, it was great 

to formally meet with OCB, Brazil’s national 

co-op apex body, as the Co-op College has been 

working with them over the past year to develop 

a series of study tours and work with their 

network of co-operative colleges. We also got 

to meet Carolina Torres, the chair of a brilliant 

co-operative school called Escola Favoo. They 

are keen to hook into the College’s Youth 

Co-operative Action programme, so we started to 

explore options.” 

Alldred and Marley, who are members of 

Co-operatives UK's International Working Group 

(IWG), also engaged with other conference 

delegates, highlighting case studies from the UK 

co-operative movement. 

“One of the key learning insights I took 

away was about how crucial embedding the 

co-operative values and principles are in the 

booming platform co-operative sector,” said 

Alldred, “and therefore the unique position 

the co-op movement has in shaping ethics and 

values in the online space. I also learned a lot 

about the principles of the circular economy and 

how crucial this thinking will be as we move 

towards a net zero world.” 

For Marley, the key takeaway was the 

“affirmation of how co-operatives really do 

enable effective community wealth building and 

innovation when strategic thinking is applied”. 

In addition to delivering a keynote speech, she 

participated in a panel on the circular economy. 


“It’s critically important to a sustainable 

future,” she says, “and co-operatives have been 

referenced by both the UN and Europe as an 

effective model to achieving impact in this way. 

“I was also delighted to share the work of 

Midcounties Co-op – particularly its work with 

Fairphone and how that delivers against the key 

elements of the circular economy.” 

She adds that she was “particularly struck” 

by a speaker from a concrete manufacturer 

in Sao Paulo. “Although not a co-op itself, 

the organisation has reduced its fossil fuel 

consumption by 45% by creating an ‘acai’ 

collecting co-op. Acai berries are turned into bio 

fuel and used to fuel the manufacturing plant, 

so alongside fossil fuel reduction there’s work 

and opportunities created locally. It was a truly 

inspiring story.” 

Also on the conference agenda was 

revolutionary work being done by co-ops in 

the platform economy. Marley feels that the UK 

is leading in terms of stimulating work around 

co-op platforms and co-ops in tech. “I opened 

the Coop Tech element of the conference with 

a keynote speech – on the invite of Gusativo 

Mendes Nascimento. I felt, to an extent, that I 

was ‘stating the obvious’, but I really wasn’t. 

We are ahead of the game here in the UK in 

terms of innovation and acceleration of platform 

co-ops – and understanding the relevance to 

tech, generally. 

“I shared the thinking behind a theme of our 

current strategy at Co-operatives UK: to enable 

tech to disrupt like our pioneers – and it is 

pioneering.” 

Both the College and Co-operatives UK 

intend to continue their engagment with cooperatives 

in Brazil. Earlier in the year, the 

two organisations welcomed a group of dentist 

members of Brazilian health co-ops. 

“As always with international conferences, it’s 

the people from around the world you meet that 

enrich the whole experience and provide real 

insight,” says Marley. 

“I was especially delighted to spend time with 

Sara Vicari, from Aroundtheworld.coop, who 

shared so much of her international experience 

of co-operatives and her incredible films. 

Likewise, it was particularly enjoyable to meet 

up with Christina Procopio, from the Global 

Innovation Summit, to progress discussions 

around a worldwide tech infrastructure and the 

opportunities that presents.” 

Set up in 2019, the ICWG supports the 

planning, co-ordination and delivery of the UK 

co-operative movement’s international activity. 

“ICWG is member based so the international 

reach across the group is significant,” says 

Alldred. “For example, Central Co-operative 

is working in Malawi through its Our Malawi 

Partnership, alongside the Co-operative College. 

“Through the UK Co-operative Relief funds 

raised across the movement, we are currently 

work with partners such as SEWA and ICA 

America’s in Mexico to deliver projects. We have 

Ben Reid sitting on the ICA’s board and Pete 

Westall sitting on the influential International 

Cooperative Entrepreneurship Think Tank 

(ICETT). We have Debbie Robinson sitting on the 

board of Eurocoop and Vivian Woodell on the 

board of Cooperatives Europe. 

“Finally – through the ICWG, we host a range 

of international co-operative study tours, to 

showcase the UK co-operative movement. 

This year alone, we have hosted visitors from 

the Philippines, Brazil, Vietnam, Zambia and 

Egypt. So yes, it’s a great reach, and a brilliantly 

networked group.” 

As to what’s next for IWG, Marley says the 

2023 UK Co-op Congress will feature panels and 

talks from international visitors, building on 

this year’s Co-op Congress international dinner, 

which featured Preet Kour Gill, Labour/Co-op 

MP for Birmingham, Edgbaston and shadow 

secretary for international development. 

“ Co-operatives 

really do 

enable 

effective 

community 

wealth-building 

and innovation 

when strategic 

thinking is 

applied” 

q Rose Marley (left) 

and Sarah Alldred 

(right) with Onofre 

Cezário Filho, director 

of OCB, and Carolina 

Torres, chair of a 

co-operative college in 

northern Brazil 


ICBA celebrates centenary 

anniversary 

WITH BRUSSELS CONFERENCE 


The global apex for the co-op banking sector met 

last month for its centenary conference, which 

looked at pressing issues such as efficiency, 

digitisation, sustainable development and 

regulatory compliance. 

Held in Brussels from 17-19 November, the 

International Cooperative Banking Association 

(ICBA), a sectoral organisation of ICA, also 

celebrated its landmark anniversary with a look 

at its legacy and future plans. 

ICBA grew out of the International Cooperative 

Banking Committee set up in 1922. 

The committee’s founding members were 

seven European consumer co-operative banks. 

In 1964 membership was opened to all coop 

banks and central co-operative credit 

organisations directly or indirectly affiliated to 

International Co-operative Alliance (ICA). In 

1984 ICBC became an international specialised 

organisation of ICA, switching to its current 

name in 1992. Its membership now includes 

over 50 member institutions around the world. 

In a message of congratulations, Simel Esim, 

Cooperatives Unit manager at the International 

Labour Organization, said: “We understand the 

responsibility for such a strong and long legacy. 

Our historical commitment to the international 

co-operative movement is unaltered.” 

ICA president Ariel Guarco also congratulated 

the ICBA. “This is a milestone that deserves to be 

celebrated and valued in front of the entire world 

co-operative movement,” he said. 

During one of the sessions Toshiaki Ono, 

financial sector specialist at the World Bank 

Group, explored his organisation’s role in 

supporting co-operative financial institutions 

through its Center of Excellence on Cooperative 

Financial Institutions. The centre works with the 


ICBA to organise webinars, hold international 

symposia and produce podcasts. 

Digitisation was also on the agenda. Sylvia 

Okinlay-Paraguya, CEO of the National 

Confederation of Cooperatives (Natcco), 

described her organisation’s experience with 

Kaya, a co-operatively owned, led, and governed 

payment platform launched in 2016. In 2021 

Natcco launched an improved version of the 

platform, along with an app that enables users 

to make and receive payments. 

“Digitisation is not just about technology, 

it is also about mindset,” she said. “This 

highlights the importance of shared services 

within the Federation and its members to 

invest in technology, which individually and 

especially the smaller and even the large 

co-operatives cannot afford. The technology 

should be shared among the co-operative so it 

can be afforded.” 

Badri Kumar Guragain, CEO of the National 

Cooperative Bank of Nepal, talked about cooperative 

financial institutions in his country, 

which has a long history of informal saving and 

credit community groups. Nepal’s constitution 

recognises co-ops as an important pillar of the 

national economy, and the bank is working 

with members to address challenges around 

digitisation, youth engagement, prudential 

regulation and improving staff members’ 

competency. 

In Israel, where five major banks hold 93% 

of the national market share, the co-operative 

banking sector is only beginning to emerge. 

Yifat Solel, board member of OFEK Credit Union 

and Israeli Cooperatives Alliance for Social, 

Economic and Environmental Justice, described 

the hurdles facing activists in her country as 

they try to establish co-op financial institutions. 

Registered in 2012, OFEK gained 3,000 

members within a year – but meeting the €25m 

(£21.48m) capital requirement to operate as a 

financial provider proved difficult. 

Other regulatory challenges meant that a 

preliminary licence for the bank was obtained 

only in 2021. But OFEK has grown – it now has 

12,750 members and its services include loans, 

credit card and collective health insurance. It is 

planning to work with a correspondent bank to 

deal with international money transfers, invest 

in IT, start a fund for loans and investment for 

the Arab Israeli communities, and start a fund 

for environmental investments. 

Challenges around 

digitisation 

and 

regulation were also 

discussed by Dr K 

Ravinder Rao, board 

member, ICBA and 

president of Telangana 

Apex Cooperative Bank, 

India. In his presentation, 

he described the difficulty 

of digitising while 

continuing to serve older 

members, who mostly 

lack the technology to 

get loans online. The 

new Indian ministry 

for co-operatives sees 

digitisation as a priority, 

which could be an 

opportunity for the country’s financial co-ops. 

Other challenges, he added, include cyber 

security and allowing the regulator to do its job 

without compromising the co-op spirit. 

For financial co-ops in the Caribbean, 

one major challenge is meeting regulatory 

requirements while competing with fintechs, 

which face no such constrains. Denise Garfield, 

general manager of the Caribbean Confederation 

p ICBA 

president Bhima 

Subrahmanyam 

addressing the 

conference 

“ We understand the 

responsibility for such a 

strong and long legacy. 

Our historical commitment 

to the international cooperative 

movement is 

unaltered” – Simel Esim 


“ 

The country is now home 

to 971 registered primary 

credit unions, many of 

these represented by 

the Bangladesh Jatiya 

Samabaya Union 

of Credit Unions, said her organisation is 

working on producing governance guidelines for 

the sector (more details on p40-41). The region’s 

credit unions are excluded from the payments 

system but have signed a memorandum of 

understanding with central banks and hope to 

be included in the future. 

The establishment of the Eastern Caribbean 

currency union could be an opportunity for 

credit unions, she added. 

In Poland, the number of co-op banks and 

credit unions is decreasing due to mergers. 

One of the organisations serving credit unions 

is National Cooperative Council (NCC), which 

plays a key role in promoting co-operative 

financial institutions. NCC president Dr Eng 

Mieczysław Grodzki 

described the council’s 

areas of work, including 

adopting an code of 

ethics for auditing unions 

set up by co-operative 

banks and other financial 

co-op apexes. 

NCC also supports all 

co-op banks and credit 

unions looking to change 

their organisational 

structure through vertical 

or horizontal integration 

and represents the sector 

in consultations when 

new laws are being 

discussed. 

In Bangladesh, missionaries set up the Cooperative 

Credit Union League in 1979. The 

sector had a presence on the land before the 

creation of the state – with over 26,000 credit coops 

in existence at the time on the 1947 partition 

– but most of these were insolvent. 

The country is now home to 971 registered 

primary credit unions, many of which are 

represented by the Bangladesh Jatiya Samabaya 

Union (BJSU), an apex body whose support 

for the sector includes leading on government 

consultations over new legislation. 

The national sector holds 3,503 crore 

Bangladesh taka (£28.11m) in savings and 4,103 

crore (£33.08m) in loans. 

The conference also examined how ICBA can 

further advance co-op financial institutions at 

the international level. Dr Hans Groeneveld, 

director of International Cooperative Affairs 

at Rabobank, argued that all ICBA members 

should share data to get a global perspective and 

learn from each other. 

“It is important to have someone tell the world 

what they mean and what impact they have,” 

he said. He suggested the ICBA ask its members 

what they deem to be the key issue going 

forward, and have them vote on the top three 

priorities for the apex. 

Robby Tulus, former regional director for ICA- 

Asia Pacific, thinks the ICBA can have a dual 

role. Firstly, it should be lobbying governments – 

especially in the global south – for a level 

playing field for the sector and to enact separate 

laws for financial co-ops, supervised by a 

special government agency with full knowledge 

of the model. 

Secondly it should promote the crucial role of 

the co-operative values and principles, this is an 

issue if the co-ops are big and leadership aspired 

to companies style, he said. 

ICA director general Bruno Roelants praised 

the ICBA for doubling its membership over the 

past three years while doing valuable work 

– such as making contacts with the World 

Bank and other institutions, and conducting 

research on financial co-ops and the Sustainable 

Development Goal . 

“This calls for more work,” he said. He thinks 

a key area of work will be to reinforce the link 

between the co-operative identity, legislation 

and practice from the point of view of co-op 

banks and financial institutions. 

“Increasingly we suffer from pressure from 

regulators around the world”, he said, adding 

that a narrative is needed to counter the 

arguments that one side fits all and do a lot of 

advocacy. The ICA will need the ICBA’s help so 

that it can do the advocacy required, he added. 

The ICA is also working with UNDESA on 

voluntary national reports on the SDGs; Roelants 

thinks this is another area where ICBA members 

can help in making sure that co-op finance is 

included. 

In terms of funding the ICBA, he said the ICA 

had reached the limits of what it can allocate to 

the sectoral organisation, but that alternative 

sources of funding could be found among ICBA 

members. 

ICBA president Bhima Subrahmanyam 

promised that his organisation will continue to 

support members in addressing regulatory and 

governance issues while seeking to create an 

environment where financial co-operatives and 

noted and recognised. 


Serving members and 

surviving the storm 

CREDIT UNIONS ON THE RECESSION FRONTLINE 

By Miles Hadfiel 

“ 

“Bottomup 

change 

is better 

than change 

dictated by 

government” 

– Andy Burnham 

UK credit unions are in the frontline of the cost of 

living crisis and the looming recession, and last 

week the sector met to discuss ways to support 

people struggling on the margins of the economy. 

The Swoboda Credit Union Conference, held 

in Manchester on 11 November, saw delegates 

face up to this stark economic outlook – and 

look for opportunities for the sector to lead the 

way through the crisis. 

They will have to do this while coming under 

pressure themselves. Dr Paul Jones, director of 

research at Swoboda Research Centre, warned 

that “the landscape is changing for many of our 

credit unions”, with savings being withdrawn, 

loan applications on the rise and increased 

distribution of foodbank and fuel vouchers. 

Andy Burnham, metro mayor of Greater 

Manchester (pictured), repeated this warning 

in his opening address. He said the situation is 

“extraordinarily difficult and likely to get worse 

– but crisis brings opportunity and a chance for 

credit unions to come to the fore.” 

Credit unions are doing great work in their 

communities and are needed now more than 

ever, he added. In Greater Manchester, many 

residents are experiencing “huge insecurity” 

when it comes to essentials like food, but credit 

unions are responding with initiatives like 

Sound Pound consortium and the launch next 

month of the government-backed no-interest 

loan scheme. 

“We need to rethink things and collaborate in 

a different way,” said Burnham, who suggested 

an increase in payroll giving, or having a credit 

union presence at the 306 warm banks being 

opened across the region to help people survive 

the winter. 

He said successful ideas could be rolled out 

to other regions, and repeated his call for more 

devolution to allow regions to work with sectors 

such as credit unions to find solutions. 

“Bottom-up change is better than change 

dictated by government,” he said, calling on 

ministers to decentralise power and “let a city 

like this control its destiny”. 

Niall Alexander, from financial inclusion body 

Fair4All Finance, said personal debt would soon 

become an “unmanageable” problem with many 

people already running up credit card bills to 

pay for essentials. Soaring living costs will hit 

disadvantaged people – including social tenants, 

minorities and single mothers – hardest. 

He said he was not sure credit unions can fill 

the gap left by the fall in payday lending, and 

warned the sector would come under pressure 

with a rise in defaults, increased loan referrals 

from the DWP. 

And in the communities credit unions serve, 

there will be a “huge rise” in people borrowing 

from friends and family – and also from illegal 

doorstep lenders. 

This situation will put credit union staff under 

strain, and they will need support, said Erik 

Porter, CEO of Cheddr – a social enterprise which 

helps organisations deliver financial wellbeing 

for their customers. 


“ 

“Last year 

compared to 

high-interest 

lenders we 

saved our 

communities 

£20m in 

interest” 

– Kathryn Fogg 

He said many credit unions offer valuable 

supports around financial education, workplace 

savings and mental health support which should 

be mentioned in recruitment ads “because you 

are hiring people into a really difficult job”. 

Employees with poor financial wellbeing can 

hamper a business, he added, putting them 

under stress which increases levels of sick leave 

and staff turnover, and lowers productivity and 

work quality. 

It is often impossible for credit unions to 

match higher salaries in the finance industry, 

so what else can they do? “Solutions don’t have 

to cost a ton of money,” said Porter: there are 

other ways to offer support – offering remote 

working, mental health first aiders, low or no 

interest loans, money coaching and cycle-towork 

schemes. 

The conference also featured a panel on “the 

credit union experience”. 

Tony Denny from Enterprise CU, Merseyside, 

said the credit union mission is to provide ethical 

financial support for members all through their 

lives. “If we can’t do it now, of all times, then we 

aren’t meeting our mission,” he warned. 

The right measures have to be in place, he 

added: that means a strong organisation, with 

well-supported, properly paid staff; credible 

succession plans for all key roles, and a simple 

range of products. 

And staff need to be empowered with the 

tools to make the right decisions for members, 

enabling them to offer payment breaks, interest 

reductions, product flipping. 

Crucially, credit unions need to protect their 

own financial stability. “Who gives top-up 

loans?” asked Denny. “Do you actually think you 

are going to get that money back?” 

He warned against creating “a vicious cycle” 

of unsustainable debt for members; instead 

there must be ways to help members “meet their 

debts in a sustainable way so they can go on to 

support themselves and their families”. 

But credit unions “don’t need to be scared of 

poor credit”, said Kathryn Fogg from Pennine 

Community CU. “We can work on it. If we don’t 

lend to people they will go elsewhere and we will 

undo the good work we’ve done over 40 years. 

We need to find a way to lend to people who are 

going through difficult times.” 

Mechanisms include payroll deductions, or 

family loans where repayments to the credit 

union come directly from child benefit. “It’s a 

fantastic product,” said Fogg, who stressed the 

value of the financial education that comes with 

the loans. 

Pennine has also looked at how the cost of 

living crisis is affecting its staff. It increased 

junior wages, paid a bonus at end of year, and 

offered low-interest loans; it has also increased 

its community donations. 

This work is paying off, she said. “Last year, 

compared to high-interest lenders, we saved our 

communities £20m in interest”. This money is 

then spent and circulated in local economies. 

Samantha Homer from Capital CU, Edinburgh, 

said her credit union has changed its policies 

to help members whose financial choices have 

narrowed. A requirement that members save 

£15 a month was locking some people out; this 

has been waived and 4% of members have taken 

advantage of the change. 

Capital has introduced a £50 loans to offer 

immediate low-level support, and a new 

financial education service which encourages 

members to come in earlier, so they can be given 

support before they default. Staff are being 

trained in early intervention and taught how to 

spot if a member is struggling. 

Local partnerships also help, with a credit 

union presence at local agencies and a linkup 

with Hibernian FC, where Capital is the 

preferred financial partner for season ticket 

saving or loan schemes. And it works with the 

club’s community foundation to give financial 

education to young people. 

Offering a perspective from the Republic of 

Ireland, David McAuley from Donore CU in 

County Meath said credit unions have to be 

sustainable. 

After Donore nearly went out of business 

between 2012-14, it took steps to ensure its 

sustainability, he said. This meant a shift in 

emphasis from 12% top-up loans – which had 

become “the never-never” – to bigger loans 

which generate more income. Donore’s biggest 

loans have grown from €2,000 to €5,000. “That 

income means we are better equipped to face 

that crisis … We know defaults are going to go 

up but we can face it.” 

Credit unions in Ireland have some advantages 

over the UK, added McAuley. “We’re still part of 

the EU and still part of a network of countries 

that support each other”. And Ireland has “a 


“ 

“Resilience is not about 

surviving, it’s about thriving 

– withstanding adversity in 

a way that does not 

diminish you” – Miranda Flury 

p Miranda Flury, 

president of Hawkeye 

Strategies 

more generous social network”, with disability 

and unemployment and child benefits rising. 

“We’ve still got a situation where people struggle 

but it’s better than the UK.” 

The afternoon session, which focused on 

resilience, was led by Miranda Flury, president 

of Hawkeye Strategies, a Canadian consultancy 

which specialised in co-op governance. 

“Resilience is not about surviving,” she said, 

“it’s about thriving – withstanding adversity in a 

way that does not diminish you.” 

This means “building capacity to withstand 

a wide range of problems and respond 

opportunistically to events … it gives you the 

chance to take advantage of opportunities when 

competitors are least 

prepared”. 

In credit union 

boardrooms, she added, 

“people are realising 

that the status quo is the 

least likely outcome. The 

status quo doesn’t exist 

… When you realise that 

your boardroom mindset 

changes.” 

Resilience means 

keeping a credit union 

well capitalised and 

increasing the flexibility of your financial 

resources. Credit unions must decide what level 

of expenditure or borrowing maximises their 

chances, and how best to increase their strategic 

options? For instance, does bricks-and-mortar 

expansion, or digital, best serve growth in 

the target market – and what future costs do 

they bring? 

Internal resilience is also vital – in terms of 

a business model that can adapt to changing 

member expectations change, new regulations 

and challenger start-ups. 

And organisations should build people 

resilience – for instance by treating “failure as 

learning opportunities”, through succession 

planning, or through diversity and inclusion. 

On this point, said Flury, “it’s not enough to 

have diverse people sitting round the table, they 

should also have the ability to speak up and be 

heard. The literature shows that if it’s there, you 

will make better decisions.” 

Resilience also requires a credit union to 

maintain brand trust – by keeping employees 

engaged, by responding properly when errors 

are made, and by “consistently following 

through with what you say you are going to do”. 

Crucially, resilience must be monitored, she 

said. Credit unions should continually ask 

where their financial resilience lies – if it is 

concentrated in a few members or well spread 

across the membership; if new business lines 

are profitable; and whether or not budget 

assumptions have proved accurate. 

Other factors to monitor include talent 

acquisition processes, the level of dependence 

on third parties, cyber breaches, how quickly 

teams and leaders can adapt to change, the 

effectiveness of disaster recovery and business 

continuity plans, and whether or not legacy 

systems are in critical failure. 

It’s also vital for credit unions to know 

their communities, said Flury. “Do you know 

their vulnerabilities, have you gone into your 

communities to assess them?” 

These questions all feed into a resilience 

which means “your credit union is around for 

years to come and can serve members in times of 

need,” she told delegates. 


Co-operation among 

co-operatives 

STRENGTHENING CREDIT UNION GOVERNANCE IN THE CARIBBEAN 

By Dave Smith 

q Caribbean 

Confederation of 

Credit Unions 

The World Council of Credit Unions (Woccu) held 

its annual conference in Glasgow in July, which 

spawned a new collaboration between Swoboda, 

the British and Irish credit union research 

centre, and the Caribbean Confederation of 

Credit Unions (CCCU). 

If you are from the Caribbean or have visited 

one of the many beautiful islands, you will 

probably be aware that credit unions are well 

established in the region. The CCCU, based in 

St Kitts and Nevis, serves 22 national affiliate 

organisations, representing 230 credit unions 

throughout the Caribbean. Representatives 

of these credit unions attended the Glasgow 

conference; among them was Denise Garfield, 

the general manager of CCCU. 

At the conference, Dr Paul A Jones, director 

of research at Swoboda, delivered a workshop 

on the hot, contested issues in credit union 

governance – dealing with questions that are 

replicated in boardrooms around the world. 

Woccu invited him to make the presentation 

because of his extensive background of research 

into co-operative governance, reflected in 

Swoboda’s 2017 publication, Credit Union 

Strategic Governance, based on engagement with 

credit unions in Britain, Ireland, and Romania. 

Paul told delegates that boards everywhere 

must bring clarity to the roles and authority of 

directors, chairs, and CEOs; establish a positive 

relationship between the chair and the CEO; and 

embed board development and education. Their 

job is to control the credit union and at the same 

time ensure that it serves its members effectively. 

More than 400 delegates attended the 

workshop, including Denise and many other 

Caribbean representatives. It provoked a lively 

debate, with stories shared from credit unions 

all over the world, concerning the challenges 

and difficulties in implementing effective 

governance. 

The workshop was especially interesting to 

Denise and the other Caribbean participants. 

They recognised that the key governance issues 

identified by Paul chimed well with CCCU’s own 

concerns back home. At its annual convention 

in Jamaica the previous month, CCCU discussed 

the survival, sustainability, and viability of 

the sector – and identified that strengthening 

governance had to be a key element of its 

development strategy. Following the workshop, 

Denise approached Swoboda to see if it could 

provide governance support for Caribbean 

credit unions. 

Several weeks and online meetings later, Paul 

and his fellow Swoboda director Nick Money 

had committed to deliver a programme of ‘train 

the trainer’ workshops, to enable Caribbean 

credit unions to adopt a consistent model of best 

practice for co-operative governance. The system 

presented by Nick and Paul, and as originally 

articulated in the 2017 report, is bespoke for the 


credit union movement, bringing together the 

diverse elements of governance into a dynamic, 

integrated, and coherent system, based on a 

clear set of universal co-operative principles 

which can be implemented by all credit unions 

internationally, and has been tried, tested, and 

published in Romania as well as Britain. The 

model describes the roles and responsibilities, 

relationships and behaviours that ensure that 

a credit union can operate as a sound and wellrun 

business and achieve its goals and strategic 

objectives. 

“It was imperative”, says Denise, “for us at 

CCCU to engage the Swoboda Research Centre 

to conduct a series of workshops to train credit 

union boards of directors in the field of effective 

corporate governance. This partnership presents 

an exciting opportunity for collaboration as we 

encourage and maintain the precedence for good 

governance within the region.” 

Swoboda’s training programme will run over 

12 sessions in January, February and March. 

Unluckily for Paul, they will be held on line. 

“Perhaps the only disappointment is that we 

can’t meet face to face,” he said. “A winter in the 

Caribbean would be attractive.” 

The training will cover all 

aspects of board and senior 

manager-level governance, 

including the principles of 

governance, the importance of 

understanding the respective 

roles of the board, directors and 

executives, and the importance of 

setting goals and strategy, as well 

as risk oversight and compliance. 

Further critical features 

address the commitment to cooperative 

values and an emphasis 

on sustaining the credit union’s 

democracy and accountability to 

members. 

The programme has another 

attraction for Swoboda, says Nick 

Money. “We have started a big 

project to overhaul our 2017 report. We want to 

update it to reflect developments in practice in 

recent years, make it much more user-friendly 

and create versions that reflect local regulation 

and approaches in Ireland, the Caribbean and 

other jurisdictions. 

“Our experience in Britain, with CCCU and 

UNCAR, the Romanian credit union trade 

association, shows us that despite the diversity 

of the international credit unions and their 

regulatory and other contexts, the practice of 

good governance has so much in common and 

we want to share our experience.” 

Swoboda will engage a range of experts to 

review the approach, section by section, and 

aims to publish a new version of the governance 

publication in late 2023. 

Swoboda is delighted to be offered the 

opportunity to work with CCCU and its member 

credit unions. As Paul notes, 

“It presents a great opportunity 

not only to share our thinking 

and expertise in governance, 

but to learn from the experience 

of credit unions facing similar 

governance issues in another 

part of the world”. 

There is something special 

about working with Caribbean 

credit unions, because it was 

from the Caribbean that the idea 

of credit union was originally 

introduced into Britain in the 

1960s. The first credit unions 

in Britain were in London 

established by people who had 

migrated from the Caribbean. 

“Swoboda is proud to be 

involved in working with a 

credit union movement that was the original 

inspiration for credit unions this side of the 

Atlantic Ocean,” said Nick. 

To learn more about credit unions in the 

Caribbean, contact Denise Garfield dgarfield@ 

caribbeanccu.coop or visit caribccu.coop. For 

more information on Swoboda and its research 

activity in Ireland and Britain, contact Nick 

Money nick.money@swobodacentre.org or visit 

swobodacentre.org 

“ The first credit 

unions in 

Britain were 

in London 

established by 

people who 

had migrated 

from the 

Caribbean” 

p (Above) Nick 

Money with Dr Paul 

A Jones and (inset) 

Denise Garfield 


CASE marks 40 years 

A SHARED VISION FOR LOCAL DEVELOPMENT 

By Paul Gosling 

u Dorothy Francis 

Dame Pauline Green was the guest of honour at 

an event celebrating the 40th birthday of CASE 

– Leicester’s Co-operative And Social Enterprise 

development agency. At its formation in 1982, 

the agency was called Leicester Co-operative 

Development Agency. 

The celebration took place in the premises 

of one of Leicester’s oldest trading co-ops, Soft 

Touch Arts Co-operative – which has been in 

operation since 1986. All food and drink, as well 

as musical entertainment, was provided by local 

co-op enterprises. 

In her address, Dame Pauline congratulated 

CASE on reaching its milestone, while reflecting 

on her positive experience with co-operatives in 

her various roles as a Labour/Co-op MEP, chief 

executive of Co-operatives UK and as president 

of the International Co-operative Alliance. Co-ops 

do businesses differently and with more 

humanity, she said. 

Rose Marley, the current CEO of Co-operatives 

UK, recorded a video to also congratulate CASE. 

Several co-operatives existed locally prior to 

the establishment of Leicester CDA, including 

Equity Shoes – established in the 19th century 

by workers in dispute with their employer, the 

Co-operative Wholesale Society. But in the 

subsequent years of Leicester CDA – under 

that name and its successor titles of Leicester 

& County CDA and CASE – a much larger cooperative 

sector has grown. 

CASE commissioned a film to mark its 

anniversary and showcase some of the co-ops 

it has supported. It contained testimonies to 

the work of the agency; screened at the 

celebration, it can be seen on YouTube, titled 

40 years of CASE. Profiled enterprises 

included Leicester Wholefood Cooperative, 

which started trading in 1987, and 

Shepshed Carers, a domiciliary care co-op, 

which is now 28 years old. 

Dorothy Francis is one of the team of five 

core workers, who are all co-directors in the 

organisation that operates as a collective. She is 

also the longest serving worker at CASE, having 

joined the Leicester & County CDA 35 years 

ago. She told the celebration that the agency’s 

structure of itself being a workers’ co-operative 

is key to its success and longevity. 

“I absolutely believe we would not have 

survived if we were not a co-operative,” 

Dorothy said. “It gives us a shared vision and 

understanding and means that we pull together. 

It also makes it a lot easier to talk to people about 

being a co-op if you are yourself a co-op.” 

The great achievement of CASE, Dorothy 

believes, has been its impact on the people who 

have worked in the supported co-ops. There are 

currently around 60 co-ops trading in the city 

or county, employing hundreds of people. “We 

have helped so many people to turn ideas into 

realities,” she says. “And we have managed to 

stay with them on their journey. 

“It’s not just about helping people to set up 

co-ops. It’s about keeping going; to grow and 

develop, dealing with challenges, to take on 

opportunities with confidence. We wanted to 

celebrate success with people like Leicester 

Wholefood Co-op, Soft Touch and Shepshed 

Carers, and welcome into the fold new ones, such 

as Great Central Gazette, which is Leicester’s 

newest co-operative. 

“And it’s about doing the job well. It’s about 

succeeding and surviving. There used to be 

a CDA in every London borough and major 


t Paul Gosling, 

Dorothy Francis, Jane 

Avery, John Goodman 

and Pauline Green 

conurbation, now I believe it is just us and 

Coventry & Warwickshire CDA in the Midlands. 

Survival should not be underestimated.” 

While the organisation has evolved over the 

four decades, the principles of engagement 

with the communities the agency serves has 

remained core to its operation. “It was the great 

thing about the agency from the beginning: 

it was a community and it was involved in the 

community,” says Dorothy. 

The CDA workers were initially often very 

hands on in early stage business establishment. 

Seed corn funding programmes in those first 

years provided important practical assistance to 

co-ops so that members gained a range of skills 

and access to resources. 

“There were some innovative projects in those 

days, which we have not been able to maintain,” 

says Dorothy with regret. 

She stresses, though, that skills development 

remains a core element of the work of CASE. 

“Skills development not just for co-ops, but also 

for us [as workers]. We have turned ourselves 

into a very highly skilled organisation in order to 

skill others. We were only the second community 

organisation in Leicester to get Investors in 

People accreditation.” 

While the agency has expanded and contracted 

at times over the years, and experimented with 

a hierarchical structure, it has returned to a 

flat collective working arrangement and wage 

parity. CASE also draws in specialist associates 

as required. 

But it is also the engagement and support 

of local co-operatives and their members that 

have been essential to the durability of CASE, 

says Dorothy. The 40th anniversary celebration 

included a recognition of the contribution of 

one of Leicester’s most dedicated co-operators – 

Bruce ‘Woody’ Wood, who died recently. Woody 

was a founder member of the Corani Housing 

Co-operative and also of a car share co-operative 

and Alternative Services Co-operative, which 

undertook electrical and other practical work for 

CASE and a range of local co-ops. 

In recognition of Woody’s contributions, CASE 

commissioned a portrait of Woody holding his 

newly born grandson, Merlin. That portrait was 

presented to his daughter Hertha, who travelled 

up to the event from Devon – where Corani is 

now located and in which Hertha is herself an 

active co-operator. 

“It’s important to remember your roots,” says 

Dorothy. “People without knowledge of their 

history are like a tree without roots. We wanted 

to acknowledge that we could not have got here, 

and survived 40 years, if it hadn’t been for the 

strength of the people we worked with, both our 

staff and the co-operators. It was always about 

the passion to make changes and move forward. 

We have had so much support over the years, 

including in the early days. 

“That support was essential in those early 

days, when no one knew what a CDA was. Woody 

was one of those who helped to root us. It is very 

important to recognise that we got here on the 

shoulders of others.” 

Paul Gosling was employed as one of Leicester 

CDA’s first workers, 40 years ago. 

“ “It’s important 

to remember 

your roots. 

People without 

knowledge of 

their history 

are like a tree 

without roots” 


A call to members 

CO-OP GROUP ON THE LOOKOUT FOR NEW 

MEMBER NOMINATED DIRECTOR 

By Susan Press 

q Member Nominated 

Director, Sarah 

McCarthy-Fry 

The search is on for someone keen to help the 

Co-op Group through the current cost of living 

crisis. 

Applications are being welcomed as the 

process begins for next year’s election of a 

Member Nominated Director (MND) to join 

colleagues on the Co-op Group board. 

Re-elected this year, MND Sarah McCarthy-Fry 

acknowledges the coming period is likely to be 

grim given the economic forecasts by the Bank 

of England and the triple whammy of soaring 

energy bills, retail prices and interest rates going 

through the roof. 

But she is clear that the Group will continue 

helping communities through what could be one 

of the worst recessions in decades. Measures 

to help employees, customers and members 

include additional colleague discount on 

Co-op-branded purchases and an additional 

cost of living allowance for customer-facing 

colleagues over the winter months. Some £37m 

has been invested to lower the price of 120 

key products through to the new year with an 

expansion of the “Honest Value” range. Despite 

the challenges, board members also remain 

committed to their goal to be a net zero business 

by 2040. 

“In the past few years it has been one thing 

after another so we have been building resilience 

and making sure we can go forward, looking at 

the balance sheets and cost structure,” says 

McCarthy-Fry, who has a background in finance. 

“Unless we are financially viable, we cannot 

do all the things we want to do. Our Vision 

Statement 2020 was issued just after I first got 

elected, that’s still the lodestar.” 

Before embarking on her current role, 

McCarthy-Fry served between 2005 and 2010 as 

Labour/Co-op MP for Portsmouth North – the 

seat currently held by Penny Mordaunt, who 

recently stood in the Conservative leadership 

contest. 

As a government minister in HM Treasury, she 

was responsible for personal savings policy and 

financial inclusion, including credit unions. 

As schools minister she led the development 

of apprenticeships policy and partnerships 

with business and schools. She is also a former 

finance director at GKN Aerospace, one of the 

world’s leading engineering companies. 

Fellow board members are from a diverse 

range of backgrounds but they all share her 

professional experience of management at the 

most senior level. 

In all there are four MNDs chosen by members 

through an election process which concludes at 

the annual Co-op AGM in May. 

“The Co-op Group is a huge organisation with 

a portfolio of several different organisations. If it 


“ Being an MP was the 

most amazing five years 

of my life. I did things I 

never thought I would be 

capable of doing” 

were a private company it would be in the FTSE 

100 so to be an MND you have to have financial 

acumen and experience at that kind of level as 

we are responsible for managing the company. 

We set the agenda, manage the risk and hold the 

executive to account for delivering the strategy 

the board has set,” she says. 

It is also a significant commitment in terms 

of time. Co-op Group board meetings are held 

10 times a year in Manchester. McCarthy-Fry is 

also a member of the Risk and Audit Committee 

and liaises regularly with the Members’ Council, 

which meets six times a year. She is also a keen 

participant in the Group’s Join In Live events, 

this year held online and in person in London 

and Glasgow. 

As a resident of the Isle Of Wight, she travels 

extensively as part of her role. 

“It’s really important that you don’t just 

sit there at the top but listen to what people 

on the ground are 

thinking. That’s what 

I missed in the Covid-19 

years,” she says. 

“We had to switch to 

online meetings which 

was very difficult, 

however we had to 

keep the organisation 

going so it was better 

than not meeting at 

all. This year I have 

been up in Scotland, 

and closer to home I 

recently spent a day in Hamble seeing what life 

is like in a small convenience store, as well as 

visiting a distribution depot in Andover. 

“Post-Covid, some of our committee meetings 

are still online and it’s good to have a bit of 

balance of both virtual and in person so more 

members get involved.” 

Although all board directors are elected, 

MNDs are the only ones to stand in a contested 

election and the process is a rigorous one. All 

candidates are expected to meet the eligibility 

and membership criteria linked to skills, 

experience and empathy with co-op values and 

principles. This includes having been a Co-op 

Group member for at least three years prior to 

submitting a nomination. 

They are also expected to have an 

accomplished track record at an equivalent level 

in a substantial organisation and awareness 

of the strategic and operational challenges 

from overall strategy to governance and risk 

management. So the ask is quite a big one. 

“Putting yourself up for a contested election is 

not everyone’s cup of tea,” she says. “It’s always 

a stressful experience putting yourself out there 

and you have to account for the possibility that 

you might not win. You also have to understand 

and know about co-operative values because 

we are that link on the board representing the 

membership.” 

Once shortlisted by the selection committee, 

candidates are able to issue formal 500-word 

statements to be considered by the members 

who then elect them at the annual AGM. 

As a former MP, Sarah is more than familiar 

with the challenges of being on the ballot paper 

and winning and losing elections. She still 

maintains links with former colleagues and is 

currently treasurer of the Parliamentary Outreach 

Trust, which visits schools and universities to 

offer an insight into the mysterious workings of 

Westminster and how government departments 

work and how Bills become law. 

“Being an MP was the most amazing five years 

of my life. I did things I never thought I would be 

capable of doing, was made a Treasury Minister 

with a couple of hours notice and then had to give 

a speech in Parliament. When I left Parliament 

I missed the friendships and colleagues but it’s 

not an easy place and we had nothing like the 

level of scrutiny you get these days on social 

media. However, once you have been a political 

animal, I think you always are.” 

Sarah is currently part of a team working 

with the Members’ Council to get more people 

involved in the Co-op Group and build better 

relationships with local communities. 

“With the challenges we are facing it’s 

always about how we achieve our vision and 

looking at what is the best way we can help our 

communities, demonstrate the co-op difference 

and work towards that,” she says. 

“It’s about how we build that relationship, 

which starts off w ith t he m embership c ard, 

so eventually people understand what cooperation 

is all about – as well as building 

relationships with other community groups 

to see how we can grow that co-operative 

way of thinking. It is a brilliant way of doing 

business and I am really passionate about it. 

As a qualified a ccountant, I c an a lso b ring i t 

all together in a way in which, if I was a non 

executive director with a corporate organisation 

just would not be the same.” 

Nominations for the MND elections close on 20 

December. More information at 

co-operative.coop/mndelection 


Leading Lives 

WITH EMPLOYEES AT THE HEART 

By Rebecca Harvey 

p Leading Lives 

is a social care 

co-op owned by its 

employees (Image: 

Anthony Cullen) 

“The best thing about my job is the people 

and the fact that we pride ourselves on being a 

very level, transparent organisation,” says Boo 

Dendy. “I can get alongside our workforce, and 

genuinely involve them, their ideas and their 

enthusiasm. They feel part of something.” 

Dendy is business development manager and 

vice-chair at Leading Lives, a social care co-op 

which provides support for people with learning 

disabilities, autism and complex needs across 

Suffolk and beyond, both in the home and in 

the community. 

“I used to work as an operations manager for a 

local authority, part of a provision for social care 

services. The LA was looking to cut provision 

back and put it to tender, but they also gave us 

the opportunity to come up with an alternative.” 

Dendy and his colleagues got researching, and 

began looking at the worker co-op model: “We 

effectively span out from the local authority 

10 years ago and now we’re a 100% employeeowned 

social enterprise, an industrial and 

provident society.” 

The organisation offers a range of support 

services, including bespoke packages of 

personal assistance and domiciliary support 

(short and long term) to autistic people and 

individuals with learning disabilities or other 

complex needs. 

It also runs Community Hubs and Units 

where people can enjoy a varied programme of 

activities and experiences designed to empower 

them to lead the life they choose – and provides 

a range of high-quality short breaks in units in 

four locations across the county. 

It also offers short breaks specifically for 

young people (13-25) so they can enjoy time away 

from home with their peers and with activities 

specifically designed for them and runs weekly 

youth groups (Leading Lives Night Hubs) for 

young people who are autistic or have learning 

disabilities. 

Leading Lives employs 417 people across 

Suffolk, with all employees having the 

opportunity to become members of the 

employee-owned co-operative. “This means 

employees can all be co-owners of the business,” 

says Dendy. “They care about how it is run and 

the quality of care it provides.” Any surplus 

made is re-invested back into services for our 


“ For us it’s all 

about 

co-production 

– about 

shifting our 

power base, 

about finding 

solutions to 

what people 

need” 

customers or in the local community through 

our Community Benefit Fund. 

Over 90% of staff choose to become employeeowners, 

and the board is made up of employees; 

the MD is ex officio with two others and the rest 

are voted on. “The board term was originally two 

years. We’ve changed that to three because you 

really need those three years to understand and 

get your feet under the table,” says Dendy. 

“We’re also developing a structure where we 

have a shareholder council that is more engaged 

and active. So actually, there’s a bit of a pathway 

towards being on the board. And we’ve also just 

voted that we feel it’s time that the chair of the 

board is a paid role outside of the organisation. 

But we will not be employing anybody unless 

they’ve got co-op values.” 

It hasn’t been an easy journey. “There was a 

real challenge going from the public sector into 

the third sector,” says Dendy. 

“None of us had business experience – all 

our experience was delivering social care – so 

we’ve had to find a lot of business acumen. 

But we have also done a lot of learning around 

the third sector, setting up a social enterprise 

and engaging with employee ownership, 

working with Co-ops UK, Social Enterprise UK 

and the Employee Ownership Association.” 

In 2019 the organisation received the 2019 

Public Service Mutual of the Year Award from 

the EOA. 

Covid-19 – and the aftermath of the pandemic 

– has been another challenge: “Before Covid, we 

were in a recruitment and retention crisis. We 

naively thought which I think a lot of the sector 

did that people would be more interested and 

have more understanding around health and 

social care. I think the opposite has happened. 

They’re terrified of it. 

“We’re in an employer’s market where we ask 

people to do a very difficult job for a cost of living 

wage – and yet you could go to a local retailer 

and earn a lot more with very little responsibility. 

And at the moment, people’s pressures are 

financial. So we’re finding we have to recruit 

to values and get into communities, reaching 

people who perhaps don’t even know they want 

to be involved in social care. But when we find 

the people with the right values, they’re the ones 

that we want to work with - not necessarily those 

with the qualifications and experience.” 

Right now, Dendy adds, everything Leading 

Lives does is about collaboration, partnerships 

and relationships. “We have strong values and 

principles and we want to work with other coops 

and social enterprises, but actually, you’ve 

got to pull the community alongside you. And for 

p Boo Dendy (Image: Anthony Cullen) 

us it’s all about co-production – about shifting 

our power base, about finding solutions to what 

people need in regards to their social care and 

trying to get out of antiquated care systems 

which are based on task and time and funding. 

It’s about being innovative, and it’s our values 

that allow us to do that.” 

Burt language can still be a barrier, he says, 

not just for Leading Lives, but across the co-op 

movement. 

“We’ve got to change our language, change 

how we tell our stories,” he says. “Those of us 

involved in the co-op movement, social value, 

employee-ownership, we’re talking jargon a lot 

of the time and we need to simplify that language 

so people understand what we’re about. 

“We also need to lobby politicians and 

commissioners to show preference towards 

the third sector because I genuinely believe 

we deliver a better service. But we also value 

employees with those principles that we have – 

that’s what is going to sustain communities.” 


2022 

Christmas 

gift guide 

Check out the Co-op News 2022 gift guide part two – with our second batch of budget buys from ethicalshop.org, 

and a range of other co-operative gift ideas to treat your friends and family with this Christmas. 

Under 

a fiver 

Mint & Grapefruit 

Shower Block £4.75 

Divine Dark Chocolate Coins £2.75 

Elephant Poo Snakes 

and Ladders £4.95 

Peters World Map (folded) £4.95 


the Queen ... a report from the 

international Co-op Housing 

Symposium ... More changes 

at the top for the Co-op Group 

ISSN 0009-9821 

01 

9 770009 982010 

Under 

a tenner 

Curry Condiment 

Gift Set £8.99 

Recycled Sari 

Notebook £5.95 

Merry Christmas 

Plant & Card Kit £8.95 

Bug Spotter 

Kit £9.50 

Green fingered gifting 

Give someone the gift of 

growth this Christmas with 

a gift card from the Seed 

Co-operative, starting from 

£5. The Seed Co-operative 

sells organic, openpollinated 

seed as part of its 

mission to “sow the seeds 

of a healthy and resilient 

organic food system”. 

seedcooperative.org.uk 

Or you can support the 

development of community 

gardens with a calendar from 

the Lambeth GP Food Co-op. 

The 2023 calendar, priced at 

£8 (plus £4 p&p), includes 

a seasonal recipe for each 

month, generously provided 

by volunteers, patients, friends, 

and members of the co-operative. 

All money from the calendar sales 

goes towards Lambeth GP Food Co-op’s 

work supporting the community by building 

gardens around GP surgeries and hospitals. 

Email gpfoodcoop@gmail.com to order. 

OCTOBER 2022 

FROM WATER TO 

ENERGY: CO-OPS 

RESPOND TO A CRISIS 

Plus … Co-ops pay tribute to 


£4.20 

Co-operative tipples 

For the gin lover in your life, 

the Gin Cooperative’s 

website features over 150 

Scottish Gins from 70 

Scottish Gin makers and 

sells gift vouchers starting 

from £25. 

thegincooperative.com 

Or you can give somebody 

a lifetime membership of 

the Wine Society for £40. 

Benefits of membership 

include access to 

fairly priced wines, 

tastings and events, 

and they’ll receive 

£20 off their first 

order of wine. 

thewinesociety.com 

Co-op News subscription 

And for something to read whilst sipping, try 

a Co-op News subscription and membership. 

For £5 a month, you can gift a loved one a 

monthly copy of our magazine so they can 

stay abreast of the happenings within the 

global co-operative movement. 

thenews.coop/be-a-member 


DIARY 

Do you have a co-operative 

event – taking place in person, 

online, or as a hybrid – to be 

featured? 

Tell us at: events@thenews.coop 

Christmas Remembrance Services 

Various (online) 

Throughout December, many of the UK’s 

co-operative retail societies are again 

hosting online Christmas memorial 

services in memory of those missed. 

These include: 

East of England Co-op 

7pm, Thursday 1 December (online) 

bit.ly/3Xw4CzS 

Southern Co-op 

6.30pm, Wedneday 14 December (online 

and at Mayfiel s Woodland Burial 

Ground, Wirral) 

info@mayfieldsburial.co.uk 

Central Co-op 

7pm, Sunday 18 December (online) 

bit.ly/3GPbNgC 

World Cooperative Monitor 2022 Official 

Launch 

1 December 2022 (online) 

the ICA in collaboration with the 

European Research Institute on 

Cooperative and Social Enterprises 

(Euricse) will organise a dedicated 

webinar to launch of the 2022 edition of 

the World Cooperative Monitor. 

This year’s edition will focus on the topic 

of digitalization in relation to cooperative 

identity. Building on the research, this 

webinar will explore how member 

democratic control (second cooperative 

principle) and consequent membership 

engagement can be enhanced through 

the use of digital tools. 

bit.ly/3OIFmCv 

Conversations with Gamechangers – 

Zameen Prapti Sangharsh Committee 

14 January 2023 (online, 3-5pm) 

This webinar is the fifth of a series of 

conversations with radical grass-roots 

solidarity economy organisations across 

the world who are breaking new ground 

in their own contexts while building 

power in their communities. The Zameen 

Prapti Sangharsh Committee has been 

building a movement of landless farmers 

to reclaim access to land they are 

rightfully entitled to in the Punjab region 

of India. Their strategy, which involves 

a diversity of tactics, includes building 

community power and making demands 

on the government for the rightful share, 

while also developing collective forms 

of working the land and sharing the 

produce. The ZPSC were influential in the 

groundbreaking farmers protests which 

took place across India in 2020-2021. 

bit.ly/3F0H2E8 

Future Co-ops 2023: Fom Crisis to 

Co-operation 

10-11 February 2023 (Oxford) 

What role can co-ops play in supporting 

people through the cost of living crisis? 

And what can existing co-ops do to 

support other co-ops on the frontline? 

futures.coop/from-crisis-to-coop/ 

Conversations with Gamechangers – 

Guerrilla Translation 

11 February 2023 (online, 3-5pm) 

Guerrilla Translation is an activist 

commons-oriented cooperative created 

to share ideas between communities 

and spread the word about things 

that matter. To help support activist 

translators and freelancers to use 

their skills for causes they care about 

while also making a living, Guerrilla 

Translation has developed a new kind 

of livelihood vehicle which combines 

two functions: a voluntary translation/ 

media collective working for activist 

causes, and an income-generating 

cooperative agency providing translation 

and communication services. This is a 

form of ‘economic resistance’; a means of 

ethically coherent, sustainable livelihood 

for knowledge workers, and the creation 

of a multilingual knowledge commons 

that upholds open-source, global idea 

sharing. 

bit.ly/3VjKuiM 

UK Society for Co-operative Studies 

Conference 

24-25 February 2023 (Lincoln) 

This conference will take the opportunity 

to reflect on Consumer Co-operation, 

particularly in the context of the business 

and service delivery changes over the 

past three years. The programme will 

include panel discussions and academic 

papers, exploring the position of 

consumer co-operatives in the present, 

looking at member engagement, the 

use of technology to facilitate online 

meetings and how data is shaping 

retailer’s relationships wit members. 

ukscs.coop 


FAIRTRADE 

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USE CODE: 15%OFF

BOOK BY 

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DISC VER 

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from only 

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with breakfast 

per person * Brand new 4* 

Give more 

Your booking helps 

children facing serious 

challenges enjoy a break, 

plus we plant a tree via our 

climate impact partner 

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who travels with us. 

ADD MORE TO YOUR STAY: 

Private return transfer from £72 

Upgrade your luggage allowance 

CALL 01922 896 534 

QUOTE: COOPBUDVA 

*Prices correct as of 31/10/2022, subject to change and availability. Price based on 14th May 2023 flying from London Gatwick. Based on 2 adults sharing. One small cabin bag per person included. Larger cabin bags or hold luggage can be purchased for a

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