We need to bottle this spirit of co-operation to ‘build back better’ - Rose Marley

Rose Marley is CEO of Co-operatives UK

We have all seen great examples of cooperation over the last year – from community organisations working together to deliver food and medicines to the isolated and vulnerable, to groups creating virtual communities to address lockdown loneliness.

But how do we bottle this spirit of co-operation and embed it in our economy, so we can make 'build back better' really mean something?

Co-operatives UK is the voice of those who have made this collaborative way of working their business. This ranges from large organisations like the Co-operative Group and Scotmid to great examples of smaller-scale co-operative working in Scotland, like Edinburgh Bicycle Co-op, Green City Wholefoods in Glasgow, community shops like the Crunchy Carrot in Dunbar and other small co-operative enterprises.

There are 564 co-ops in Scotland, turning over more than £1.5 billion annually. Yet this is not proportionate to the rest of the UK, where there are 7000-plus co-ops employing 240,000-plus people with a combined annual turnover in excess of £38 billion.

So, despite a strong track record of co-operative working and social enterprise in Scotland, we are not seeing the amount of new co-ops setting up as we would like - or expect.

We have a window of opportunity to change this, for a fairer, more equitable future.

By tapping into the positive collaboration we all saw during the pandemic, we have a genuine chance to hardwire co-operative ways of working into our economy. This is not just a 'nice to do' policy, it makes business sense; only 42% of all start-up businesses are still operating after five years. For co-ops, this rises to 76%.

At the last meeting of the Scottish Parliament's Cross Party Group on Co-operatives before the Holyrood election, I was delighted at the understanding of the opportunity for co-operative approaches to make a positive economic difference.

There was agreement that this cannot just be founded on warm words, but on real projects making a real difference in real communities.

That's why Co-operatives UK has outlined four very specific areas of action that we want to see all parties include in their manifestos for the Scottish Parliament elections.

These are: A Co-op Entrepreneurs' Scheme to help enterprising young Scots build livelihoods and enrich communities by creating worker co-ops; A Co-op Job Recovery Scheme to create co-ops when businesses and jobs are threatened by sale, relocation, restructuring or closure; A Co-op and Community Housing Programme, to develop more co-operative options for affordable, secure and green housing, drawing on successes like West Whitlawburn Housing Co-op in South Lanarkshire, and Edinburgh Student Housing Co-op; A Scottish Community Finance Booster, to deliver match investments as part of a ‘blended’ finance approach, when co-op members raise equity through community shares to save or create local assets, such as community-owned visitor centre, the Loch Ness Hub.

These are not just pipedreams, but practical programmes for real communities. There is political support to do this, and a desire for change. Let’s not throw away the positive collaboration we have seen in a time of crisis; let’s work more cooperatively to improve lives and livelihoods across Scotland.

We have to act now - so let's seize this window of opportunity!

Rose Marley is CEO of Co-operatives UK: www.uk.coop.