Metro mayors should appoint co-op deputies, new report demands

The new breed of metro mayors should appoint deputies to champion the growth of co-operatives across their regions, campaigners say today.

The recommendation was one of a series designed to boost mutual approaches to the economy and public services which is published today by the Co-operative Party.

It comes as Co-op members gather for the party’s local government conference in Manchester today. Andy Burnham, Labour’s candidate for the Greater Manchester mayoralty, and Jim McMahon, shadow local government minister, will be among the speakers at the event, which will showcase how councils have delivered innovative mutual solutions in an era of spending cuts driven from Westminster.

Activists will discuss details of By Us, For Us: a co-operative agenda for enhanced city regions, a new report which argues that metro mayors and combined city authorities must use their new powers to further devolve decision-making and ownership. The expanded mayoral model, engineered by George Osborne, is being kept by Theresa May despite her political defenestration of the former chancellor.

As well as the suggestion of adding a deputy role for each metro mayor, the report calls for a series of co-operative approaches to energy, transport, social care and banking, including:

• The development of employee and customer-owned co-operative businesses;
• Greater passenger involvement in the provision of local bus services, including an expansion in the role of not-for-profit and community-run operators;
• The expansion of community energy co-operatives to reduce fuel bills;
• The involvement of care workers and care recipients in commissioning local providers.

“Co-operative councillors have been at the forefront of innovation in local government in recent years,” said Claire McCarthy, general secretary of the Co-op Party.

“They have shown how relevant co-operative approaches are to meeting the challenges facing families and communities in their area. Cities and regions now have the chance to build strong local economies and communities, and driving power down to people is the way to achieve that.”

McMahon said: “When power is passed simply from Whitehall to the town hall without a real community stake in this new settlement, we miss an opportunity. This important report from the Co-operative Party helps us to understand how devolution can be used to level the playing field of our democracy, giving people a voice, a stake and a say in the way their society is organised.”