Tackling Barriers to Building a Cooperative Economy

• 3rd Feb 2025

As the title of this Policy Lab might imply, we currently don’t have a “Cooperative Economy” in the UK: we have lots of co‑operatives operating mainly as islands within an otherwise competitive and largely profit-driven economy, where their influence is marginal

We understand the term “Cooperative Economy” to denote something different from the mainstream economy. It is where people and organisations work together in a way guided by shared values and principles that challenge traditional, competitive, and financially driven approaches. However, it must exist within the mainstream economy and, over time, influence it.

The ultimate aim is the happiness and well-being of all, not the private benefit of some. More specifically, it means people and organisations conducting their affairs differently, with everybody in mind, including future generations. Seeking to register lots of new cooperatives has (crudely) been the approach of recent years; it hasn’t worked. The desired outcome needs a different approach.

This Policy Lab poses three basic questions (or “lines of enquiry”) set out below, which need to be considered first to understand why we are where we are. We contend that the failure to provide good answer to these questions over recent decades has played an important part in the limited progress made in building a UK Cooperative Economy.

Providing better answers to those three questions is crucial, as it will help identify the barriers that need to be overcome. But even more importantly, naming the real problems is essential if our collective ambition – building a UK Cooperative Economy – is to be delivered.

• Tackling Barriers to Building a Cooperative Economy

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