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Principles met

  • Enterprise and social economy

    We will promote community-based approaches to economic development that focus on supporting the creation of jobs, social enterprises and other businesses and providing an environment for co-operative and mutual enterprises to thrive.

  • Learning

    We will capture and ‘expand’ the experience and learning from individual projects and approaches in order to encourage broader application of co-operative principles within individual member Councils and across the Network.

  • New models of meeting priority needs

    In exploring new ways of meeting the priority needs of our communities we will encourage models, such as co-operatives and mutuals, which give greater influence and voice to staff and users. in designing and commissioning public services and in determining the use of public resources.

Preston City Council is exploring how cooperative approaches could support the growing number of self-employed and freelance workers in the UK economy. Across many sectors – including professional services, creative industries, digital work and training – increasing numbers of people now work independently. While self-employment offers flexibility and autonomy, it can also bring challenges such as unstable income, difficulty accessing larger contracts, limited administrative support and lack of protection during gaps in work or illness.

To explore these issues, Preston City Council has commissioned a feasibility study into establishing a cooperative structure that could support freelance and self-employed workers. The study is being led by Community Broadband Network (CBN), an associate member of CCIN, working with specialist cooperative advisers.

The project is exploring models from other countries that already support independent workers through cooperative approaches. The most well-known example is the SMART cooperative in Belgium, which provides administrative services and mutual protection for tens of thousands of freelance members. Other European and US initiatives have created similar platforms to help freelancers share infrastructure, access work, and manage risks associated with independent employment. There are also smaller-scale examples in the UK. Freelancer cooperatives have formed in sectors such as the creative industries and music, showing how independent workers can collaborate through shared structures while maintaining their autonomy. The Preston study is examining how a cooperative platform could work alongside trade unions, combining collective representation with practical services and mutual support for freelancers.

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