Co-op News October 2019: Sustainable Development

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CO-OP PARTY GETS READY FOR ITS AGM Focusing on community power and climate change Registration is open for this year’s Co-op Party conference, held in Glasgow from October 11-13. Organisers are expecting hundreds of members and supporters from across the UK to debate policy and hear from speakers in the co-operative and labour movements. They say the event will help the Party shape its work and campaigns in the year ahead. This year’s theme is Building a Fairer Future, with the Party focusing on “some of the big challenges our economy and communities face”. There will be a particular spotlight on climate change and community, says the Party, with a showcase for some of the best co-operative solutions that can be expanded and supported to build the fairer future we so desperately need. Policy debates will be held on the Green New Deal and community, place and power, and there will be topical discussion on mental health and modern slavery. Keynote speakers on Saturday 12 October include Keir Starmer MP, shadow secretary of state for exiting the European Union, and Richard Leonard MSP, leader of the Scottish Labour Party. On the Sunday, delegates will hear from Christina McAnea, assistant general secretary at Unison. Before the conference opens, on the Friday, there will be delegation meet ups for the different Party regions, a welcome reception in association with Social Enterprise UK, and a Youth Network social. Other events on Saturday include fairer future information workshops, an LGBT+ network social, and the conference party, organised with Scotmid Co-op, which includes an awards ceremony, speeches and live band. The Sunday morning programme opens with a BAME network breakfast and is followed by the Party’s AGM and a Women’s Network lunch. The event comes hot on the heels of the conference by the Party’s sister organisation, the Labour Party. In blog, the Co-op Party hailed a number of co-op successes at the conference – with Labour reaffirming its commitment to doubling the UK’s co-operative economy and signalling support for a co-operative university. The Party also hosted fringe sessions on safety for shopworkers and communities, barriers facing disabled people in self-employment, food justice and leaseholds. WRITTEN BY: Miles Hadfield 28 | OCTOBER 2019
HOW DO WE BUILD CO-OP PLACES? CCIN prepares for national conference The Co-operative Councils Innovation Network meets in Rochdale on 2 October to share its stories of people-led local policy making. This year’s event take the theme of Building Co-operative Places, which will be discussed in the afternoon plenary. Cllr Sharon Taylor, chair of the network and leader of Stevenage Council, says this means “people in a local area having more involvement in decision-making about spacial planning in their area and the services that are delivered”. The conference will also feature feedback from the network’s policy labs, which it has been funding for INTERVIEW Cllr Sharon Taylor, chair of the CCIN HOW DO COUNCILS IN THE NETWORK SELL THE IDEAS OF THE CCIN TO THEIR PUBLIC? It’s different in different places. In Preston, the key driver behind the co-op council was unemployment – so they speak to people about how it delivers jobs and supports local businesses. In my own local authority, Stevenage, unemployment is lower, so our driver is to design skills programmes to make sure that people who live here get the qualifications they need to work. But we also want to use our local government spend to support local businesses, keeping that money in the local economy. We spend around 15% in the Stevenage area, which goes up to 30% if you include the wider area, but that could be more. HOW CAN ORGANISATIONS LIKE CO-OPERATIVE COUNCILS COMMUNICATE THE IDEA OF CO-OPERATION ITSELF? As people get more sceptical of mainline politics, they do understand that if you work together you get better outcomes; the essence of co-operation is people working together for common benefit. If a council works to incorporate people into its policy making, you get better value for money – because they tell you what they actually need, it’s not just some decision makers in a room. And getting people to contribute to decision making goes right back to the origins of the co-op movement. the last two years. “With funding tight, it’s very hard for councils to find the money to research a policy idea to see if it works,” says Cllr Taylor. “But we are an innovation network so this is part of our job – so we are offering member councils funding of up to £10,000 to research ideas.” Keynote speeches come from Steve Reed MP, honorary president of CCIN and shadow minister for digital, culture, media and sport, and for children and families; Andrew Wynne MP, shadow secretary of state for communities and local government; and Lord Kennedy, shadow spokesperson for communities, local government and housing. WHAT SHOULD DELEGATES LOOK OUT FOR AT THE CONFERENCE? There are some great sessions on community wealth building. And some of our newer members will be coming up – for instance, Tameside Council, which has done work on social care. They’d had a difficult regulator’s report, and in response developed some much more people-based services. HOW IS THE CO-OP COUNCIL MOVEMENT PROGRESSING? Our great strength is the variety of things going on in the network – there aren’t any of the challenges we’re facing that don’t have a co-operative solution. For instance, we’re taking on climate change, with councils like Oxford developing real co-operative approaches; and also the economy, with Plymouth committed to doubling the size of its co-op economy. Our other strength is that we don’t set a formulaic approach – we want to see our councils innovate in real time for their own population, and to share with the rest of us what they find out as they do it. The conference is a great chance to find out what everyone is doing, on issues such as housing, domestic abuse and food. We’ve been very pleased with the development of the network – it’s grown hugely; we now have 28 full council members and a huge range of affiliate members. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority is an affiliate member, and Andy Burnham was our first metro mayor to become a member; we now also have Marvin Rees from Bristol. Cllr Sharon Taylor, chair of the CCIN Politics section _ Co-op Party and CCIN Conference OCTOBER 2019 | 29
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Page 3 and 4: Sustainable development to build a
Page 5 and 6: NEWS ENERGY Octopus and Co-op Energ
Page 7 and 8: Food chief calls for action to tack
Page 9 and 10: ENVIRONMENT Co-op Group signs UN’
Page 11 and 12: RETAIL Retail societies grateful fo
Page 14 and 15: GLOBAL UPDATES GLOBAL Co-ops and cr
Page 16 and 17: GLOBAL Agropur joins G7 business co
Page 18 and 19: IRELAND Lakeland Dairies co-op anno
Page 20 and 21: IRELAND Row continues over milk pri
Page 22 and 23: MEET... Meet … Michael Gidney, CE
Page 24 and 25: YOUR VIEWS FAIRTRADE FESTIVITIES? I
Page 26 and 27: Co-operative College centenary conf
Page 30 and 31: DELIVERING DEVELOPMENT What has the
Page 32 and 33: SERVING UP CO-OP IDEAS ON A BRIGHTO
Page 34 and 35: SOCIAL BUSINESS: Safeguarding the f
Page 36 and 37: THE COLLAPSE OF THOMAS COOK Retail
Page 38 and 39: CO-OPS & THE SDGs “The 2030 Agend
Page 40 and 41: ICA-EU PARTNERSHIP The co-operative
Page 42 and 43: SDG 10 How are the ICA Asia-Pacific
Page 44 and 45: SDG 08 At Kigali, you will take par
Page 46 and 47: TECH & THE SDGs The UN Sustainable
Page 48 and 49: REVIEWS What does the future hold f
Page 50: DIARY CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT: Roch

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