The Co-operative Party today welcomed a commitment from the Scottish Labour Party to promote the co-operative council model including through the provision of support for co-operatively run businesses to deliver local services including social care and childcare care.

The proposal which forms one of the recommendations of Scottish Labour’s Devolution Commission, which was published this morning by Labour and Co-operative MSP and Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont, has the potential to see the significant expansion of mutually run local services.

Commenting on the recommendation, Kezia Dugdale MSP, Chair of the Co-operative Party Group of MSPs said:

“This is a really significant announcement which shows the commitment that Scottish Labour has for a bigger role for co-operative values and approaches in the running of local services.  As evidence from Co-operative Councils including Edinburgh and Glasgow is already beginning to show, such ‘people powered services’ put employees, communities and service users at their heart and prevent traditional private sector companies driving down the quality of provision in order to maximise profit for shareholders.”

To read the Scottish Labour Devolution Commission report click here: http://s.bsd.net/scotlab/default/page/file/26e0eb4bdf4c775d14_ram6b81bk.pdf