Principles met

  • We will develop systems that enable citizens to be equal partners in designing and commissioning public services and in determining the use of public resources.
  • We will explore ways for councils to act as a platform for helping the community to contribute to local outcomes, and to re-think the role of councillors as community connectors, brokers and leaders.
  • 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.
  • We will support the development of a framework and criteria for social value, giving substance to the concept and supporting Councils with the tools to ensure better local social and economic outcomes.
  • 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.
  • As a membership organisation, we will make this statement of our principles operational by: • Co-operation among members: Our members work together to help each other implement our values, sharing experiences and learning. • Openness of membership: Full, Associate and Affiliate Membership is open to any qualifying Council, organisation or individual who shares our values and is committed to putting them into action. • Co-production of the Network’s work: Members help shape the Network’s work programme and the content of events and written products. • Action-focused: The network is a vehicle for helping councils translate co-operative values and principles into policy and practice. •Membership-based: The network is majority funded by modest membership subscriptions from its member Councils, Associates and Affiliates. •Non-party-political: Members share the belief that working co-operatively within and across communities holds the key to tackling today’s challenges.

In January 2023, Liverpool City Council adopted a new Community Led Housing Policy, which aims to unlock vacant land and properties for community groups to convert into new homes.

The proposed policy echoes the ambition of the city’s Victorian and Edwardian ancestors who created the first social housing scheme in Europe and the UK’s first community led housing group. It also draws on learning from the Co-operative Councils Innovation Network’s previous community-led housing commission.

A key focus of Liverpool’s new policy is to stimulate new affordable housing in areas blighted by empty or derelict properties and to empower community organisations to deliver the design and build of more local homes. Whether it’s an old school, the site of a long-forgotten baths or vacant, abandoned houses – community groups will have the opportunity to transform this brownfield land into the social housing our city so desperately needs.

For further information contact: