Doubling: A Party Political Perspective

Future Co-ops Conference kicked off with a panel discussion featuring speakers from across the Co-operative Party, plus questions and debate from a very engaged audience.

Our chair, Rebecca Harvey from Co-operative News invited panellists Baggy Shanker MP, Cllr Sue Woodward, and Stewart Holroyd, Director of Student Co-op Homes and a member of the Co-op Party, to explore what doubling the co-op economy means on a regional, city and local level.

Watch a recording of the panel and Q&A here.

Imagining the Future, Learning from the Past

Opening the morning session on Day 2, Jo White, CEO of Co-op Futures, highlighted the disparities in the growth of co-ops compared to alternative business models. While employee-owned businesses benefit from tax breaks and saw a boom in 2023, and the number of CICs grew by 7000 in 2024, co-ops are still lagging behind.

Co-op business advisor Alex Bird provided an international perspective, based on his wide-ranging 2024 report for Plaid Cymru. Pete Westall, Chief Values Officer at Midcounties Co-op talked about the role of ‘soft’ influence in shaping perceptions of co-ops in more traditional spaces.

Workshops – Outcomes & Proposed Actions

The conference featured a series of practical workshops, to explore and agree on outcomes and asks across four different areas and we’ve presented these below. Rebecca Harvey has written a longer form report from the conference for Co-op News which can be found here.

Take a look at our round up of the previous Future Co-ops Conference #FC2C – From Crisis to Co-op.