Author Archive

Finance can be ethical

Ethics are, at last, big business. There has been a four-fold increase in ethical investment in the UK in the last decade, rising from £2.4bn in 1999, to £9.5bn by 2009. Where there were 20 or so ethical investment funds at the turn of the millennium, now there are well over a hundred.

Consumers [...]

Farewell PCTs

Handing over health commissioning to GPs in place of PCTs is a big step, which cannot be achieved in one ‘big bang’, the Department of Health has recognised. Rather, the transfer requires managed stages – which, ironically, initially involve greater centralization, before eventually becoming a more localized commissioning process.

In December, DoH announced that PCTs [...]

Saving energy by co-operation

The Energy Saving Co-operative has very big ideas. Its co-founder and would-be chief executive Ewan Jones says: “There is a £10bn annual market for retro-fitting homes and the co-op is aiming for at least 10% of this market. The demise of the Energy Saving Trust leaves a gap for the co-op. “
The concept for [...]

Presbyterian crisis benefits credit union members

The disaster of the Presbyterian Mutual Society is still causing ripples across financial services regulation in Northern Ireland. A gap in regulation between the Financial Services Authority and Northern Ireland’s Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment meant there was no proper oversight of the Presbyterian – an industrial and provident society.

Members of the Presbyterian [...]

Mutual brings affordable housing to countryside

Two attractive new homes were completed over the summer in the small Shropshire market town of Bishops Castle. This is significant in a town that is so highly regarded by tourists that many return later in life to retire in the beautiful countryside on the border of England and Wales. The result of the influx [...]

Yorkshire leads the way

In recent weeks a series of ambitious initiatives has seen the Yorkshire Building Society not only cement its place as one the largest societies in the UK, but also establish itself as one of the most exciting and fastest growing mutuals.

Yorkshire Building Society is in fact now the second largest society, following its takeover [...]

Co-operative banks may weather crisis

Co-operative and mutual banks and not-for-profit savings banks have played an important role in the European financial system over the last century. Indeed, there remain several European co-operative banks that have a very strong presence in their domestic markets.

According to the latest figures published by the European Association of Co-operative Banks, the UK’s [...]

Mutualising the Post Office

The serious business of mutualising public services is now underway. A number of initiatives have recently been launched which are intended to turn traditional government operations and arm’s length bodies into mutuals.

‘MyCivilServicePension’ is the most contentious of these and one of the largest. Another scheme in preparation is for the audit arm of the [...]

A warning for public sector mutuals

The Government’s programme for mutualising public services is at its first important crossroads. While ministers remain enthusiastic, staff seem unimpressed. The initial scheme of mutualisation – though staff will only partly own the resulting ‘mutual’ – is MyCivilServicePension. Employees are planning strike action to resist the proposal.

Now we have a report from the National [...]

Standards challenge for co-ops

Accountancy is regarded as a boring profession for boring people. This is very unfair. Indeed what was said about bankers, after the banking crash, is equally apposite to accountants. What the world needs now is rather more very boring bankers – and accountants.

As with bankers, accountants are society’s new ‘financial engineers’. (This reminds me [...]