MAY 2018
The May 2018 edition of Co-op News: connecting, challenging and championing the global co-operative movement. This issue shines a spotlight on governance – and how co-operatives do it differently. We also look at co-ops on the agenda in Westminster, sustainability supporting and preview some of the motions being put to the vote at the Co-op Group AGM.
The May 2018 edition of Co-op News: connecting, challenging and championing the global co-operative movement. This issue shines a spotlight on governance – and how co-operatives do it differently. We also look at co-ops on the agenda in Westminster, sustainability supporting and preview some of the motions being put to the vote at the Co-op Group AGM.
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RETAIL<br />
Midcounties Co-op announces a UK<br />
retail first on food source labelling<br />
Midcounties Co-op says Happerley certification on food<br />
ingredients is to become mandatory for all food suppliers across<br />
its Best of our Counties range.<br />
This will make the ingredient supply chains of over 200 ranges<br />
of food and drink fully transparent to the consumer, via a QR<br />
code, app and certification marque. The certification will roll out<br />
over the following months across 230 food stores.<br />
Enabling the consumer to connect to and validate the journey<br />
of their food in this way is a UK first, says Midcounties.<br />
Happerley advisory board member Adam Henson said:<br />
“Consumers should know where their food is from. Happerley<br />
enables the consumers to see in an instant exactly where the<br />
ingredients have come from. We all hope this will become a<br />
national game changer.”<br />
Midcounties chief executive Phil Ponsonby added: “We believe<br />
consumers increasingly want to know where the ingredients<br />
in their food and drink are from and I am delighted we are<br />
working with Happerley as their first multiple retailer to adopt<br />
this scheme.”<br />
p Singer-songwriter Leddra, the first featured artist in the deal, with<br />
SupaPass founder Juliana Meyer<br />
TECHNOLOGY<br />
Musical marriage for East of England<br />
The East of England Co-op has teamed up with Norwich-based<br />
technology startup SupaPass to bring free music to its customers.<br />
SupaPass is a streaming app which gives artists their own<br />
subscription streaming service, where they can earn 100% net<br />
revenue share, unlike the micropayments from other streaming<br />
models. The trial, launched in 16 food stores across Norfolk,<br />
Suffolk and Essex last month, offers free song download cards at<br />
till points, which give away a free song online from local artists.<br />
POLITICS<br />
Co-operative Party offers ‘radical vision’ of democratic public ownership<br />
p The paper includes proposals for a new<br />
generation of community-owned renewables<br />
The Co-operative Party has published a<br />
new paper in which it calls for alternative<br />
models of democratic public ownership<br />
for key industries including water, energy<br />
and rail.<br />
The report welcomes Labour Party<br />
plans to bring these industries and<br />
others into public ownership, but argues<br />
that democracy and accountability<br />
must be at the heart of new publicly<br />
owned models. It envisions services<br />
directly accountable to those who use<br />
them and have a stake in their success:<br />
customers, employees and taxpayers.<br />
Greater involvement of customers and<br />
employees will also lead to improved<br />
productivity, it argues.<br />
The Party believes the debate<br />
around public ownership goes beyond<br />
a basic argument about profits –<br />
being a question of governance<br />
and accountability.<br />
“The Co-operative Party believes the<br />
full potential of public ownership can<br />
only be achieved through the use of<br />
democratic, accountable and inclusive<br />
models. Public utilities and transport<br />
redesigned using co-operative values and<br />
principles would democratise key aspects<br />
of our economy,” reads the report.<br />
It stresses the need to create not-forprofit<br />
regional water companies, owned<br />
and run by accountable trusts made up of<br />
employees and consumers.<br />
The Party suggests the new employee<br />
and consumer trusts should have a role<br />
in scrutiny and decision-making at Ofwat<br />
by appointing a scrutiny panel which<br />
reviews the operations of the regulator<br />
and plays a role in board appointment.<br />
It also argues that Ofwat should work with<br />
HMRC and financial regulators to<br />
tighten the rules on tax arrangements<br />
for companies wishing to invest in UK<br />
public utilities.<br />
The report gives examples of public<br />
services run co-operatively, including<br />
Welsh Water (Glas Cymru), which<br />
became a not-for-profit company limited<br />
by guarantee in 2000 after “a people’s<br />
bid” to take it out of private ownership.<br />
Party general secretary Claire McCarthy<br />
said: “Those who want to continue to<br />
defend the failed privatisations of rail,<br />
energy and water will no longer be<br />
able to use the smokescreen that any<br />
alternative means a return to the past.<br />
What this document sets out is a radical<br />
vision for democratic public ownership<br />
for the 21st century.”<br />
She added: “Public ownership is now<br />
a mainstream political position backed<br />
by the majority. The time has come to<br />
focus on how it can be achieved, and how<br />
we maximise the benefits to consumers,<br />
employees and the taxpayer.<br />
“We offer the proposals in this report as a<br />
contribution to these discussions.”<br />
<strong>MAY</strong> <strong>2018</strong> | 9
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