Life as a Co-op councillor

By Wes Streeting / @wesstreeting

Until Thursday night’s fantastic local election results, I was one of the Co-operative Party’s newest councillors. Elected in a by-election in July, I find myself in opposition to a Conservative-Lib Dem administration in the London Borough of Redbridge that is unprepared to put the interests of local people before national party allegiances.

I have never been one of those who believed that the Labour Party could do with a period in opposition for ‘renewal’, but until now I hadn’t realised just how self-interested that argument really is. The impact of the coalition’s cuts agenda is beginning to bite locally. Already we are faced with in-year cuts of more than £4 million. Front line services are at risk. Proposals circulated include cuts to budgets affecting road cleansing and enforcement, support for young people, mental health services and public conveniences.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. This autumn’s Comprehensive Spending Review is likely to herald further savage cuts to local government budgets. David Cameron says these cuts are permanent. The pace is by choice, not necessity; their depth has been determined by ideology, not fiscal responsibility.

In his LabourList article, Michael Stephenson, the Co-operative Party’s general secretary has argued that the credit crunch perfectly illustrates the need for co-operation and mutuality as a serious economic and social model. The co-operative approach also has to be part of the left’s alternative to these right wing cuts, locally and nationally. The coalition’s cuts to local government are likely to be in the range of 20-25%. If so, councils across the country will be faced with a challenge that will require nothing less than a fundamental overhaul of our public services.

The co-operative approach should be held up in stark contrast to the coalition’s cuts agenda. Labour controlled Lambeth has already published its white paper proposing to make Lambeth the first co-operative council in Britain. For those of us who find ourselves in opposition, we should not only fight the Coalition’s regressive cuts, but set out a bold, co-operative vision as an alternative.

As a co-operator, I believe strongly in the transfer of power to local communities. Community-based and mutual organisations could play a valuable role running local services, providing youth opportunities, tackling the causes of crime, providing co-operative housing solutions and even providing education through co-operative schools. These ideas could not only provide an alternative to abolishing services, but provide better provision.

The ideas set out in the Co-operative Party’s general election manifesto were far more inspirational than those in Labour’s manifesto. As Co-operative Party members meet this weekend it should be with the ambition of providing the back bone for a bold, new policy programme to take the Labour and Co-operative parties back to power: locally and nationally. The mutual moment is long overdue.