Author Archive

A lesson that needs learning

There is an interesting debate being conducted in the correspondence column of the Financial Times. Are mutuals inherently stronger institutions that are less likely to collapse? Or does the strength of an institution rely on the quality of its management, irrespective of organisational structure?

Relevant points have been made on both sides of the argument. [...]

Farewell department stores

The decision of the Anglia society to give up on department store retailing is significant for the sector. Anglia was one of the last societies to persist with high street department stores – and had invested heavily to try to make it succeed. The reality is that a style of trading that was once synonymous [...]

Where now for credit unions?

Where to now for credit unions? The global financial crash has been both a plus and a minus for the organisations often referred to as finance co-operatives.

With confidence in banks at an all time low, many more savers and borrowers are seeing credit unions as a valid alternative. Credit unions have not lost stacks [...]

Civil service mutualisation marches forward

It is becoming clearer how the mutualisation of public services is to work. The first major public sector conversion has now been announced, with the civil service administration service being turned into a mutual – of sorts.

My Civil Service Pension (MyCSP) will be ‘spun-out’ of the civil service, into a stand-alone mutual. However, it [...]

Plan for Growth is disappointing news

Mutuals are now widely recognized as a central part of the business environment. At the same time, there is acceptance that the needs of the sector differ from those of equity-financed companies. Those perceptions are evident in the ‘Plan for Growth’, published by the Treasury and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as part [...]

Railways: a natural co-op sector?

“There is a remarkable paradox about the state of Britain’s railways today,” says Christian Wolmar in a new booklet, commissioned and published by Co-operatives UK*. “On the one hand, they are fantastically successful, attracting more passengers than at any time in their history and are the subject of a massive investment programme which has for [...]

Public sector ‘mutualisation’ moves ahead

One in six of today’s public servants could be engaged in mutual organisations that run their services on contract to government within four years, according to Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude – architect of the ‘right to provide’ initiative.

“There are six million people who work in the public sector at the moment,” Maude told [...]

Egypt revolts: What now for its co-ops?

I still wear, as Tony Blair might have put it, ‘the scars on my back’ from my involvement in the co-operative sector. To phrase it more literally, I remember vividly arguments about whether co-operation is part of the way in which society can be changed for the better, or whether in practice it is an [...]

Will US lead way on co-operation?

Global politics are arguably in their most interesting, and most fluid, situation in the last 60 years. Following the financial crash and recession, it is unclear how politics will bed down. But it is unlikely they will return to ‘normal’. This creates opportunities for the co-operative movement – in terms of shaping both the new [...]

An open letter to the Parliamentary Group on Financial Mutuals

Open letter to Cathy Jamieson MP, Jonathan Evans MP and Baroness Maddock, joint chairs of the All–Party Parliamentary Group on Building Societies and Financial Mutuals.

Dear joint chairs,

Firstly may I congratulate you and your colleagues for your membership and leadership of the all-party group. It has previously published an important piece of work on [...]