Annual Conference (Motion 2 – Wales Co-operative Party)

The NEC has already taken the decision to hold a venue-based Annual Conference only on alternate years, which will greatly reduce costs to local parties. Further work is on-going to plan a Conference in 2024 that is significantly less costly than 2022.

It was also agreed that the selection of locations for future Annual Conferences should take account of support for local economies.

By-election ballot papers (Emergency Motion)

Representations have been made to the Labour Party on designating Labour & Co-operative candidates in by-elections.  Further discussion is needed however on cost-sharing.

Each quarter, the General Secretary reports to the NEC on the Party’s activity and progress towards our Strategic Objectives.

Here is a summary of the most recent report, in February, covering Q4 2022:

The Party has conducted a relatively large number of Westminster selections both official and unofficial through 2022. During this reporting period we gained another official Labour & Co-operative PPC with Miatta Fahnbulleh in Camberwell and Peckham CLP. We have also run processes in Scotland and Wales, whose selections have started since the last report.

The Party is working to support our new PPCs. All candidates were invited to a Westminster event, which was addressed by a range of speakers including the Shadow Chancellor, Shadow BEIS Secretary of State, Labour Party Chair, Chair of the Co-operative Party and General Secretary, among others.

The Party has issued campaign updates and model releases to the PPCs and has sought to profile them within the Regional Conference programmes.

Much credit needs to go to the Scottish Co-operative Party (along with Officer support) for finding ways to integrate with Scottish Labour’s new Westminster selections and beginning the process of supporting new Co-op candidates emerging from the selections.

The Party is continuing  to hold its candidate development programme training sessions and coffee mornings to support new candidates. We are currently working hard with regions to increase the number of candidates and decrease those waiting for Local Party approval. We are also working with our equalities networks to ensure there are specific potential candidate sessions with them and the first of which has taken place with the women’s network.

UK Labour policy and Labour frontbench activity.

The Party has done a lot of work to increase the strength of our policy offer within the Labour Party. Through this reporting period Gordon Brown’s Constitutional Commission reported, a Commission the Party submitted evidence to, and the General Secretary is noted within the thanks and acknowledgements section. It was good to see the Commission be clear about the need for co-operative growth as an important tool for achieving a fairer more evenly distributed economy.

UK Labour support for co-operative growth has been seen through the joint work of the Party and the Shadow Treasury team through the course of the Financial Services and Markets Bill. Amendments led by Tulip Siddiq MP included the call for the Government to adopt new duties to grow the co-operative sector and to ensure there is a legislative framework to support the growth.

The shadow Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy team has worked with the Party to carry amendments aimed at levelling up the playing field for co-operatives through the course of the 2^nd Economic Crime Bill. Co-operative MP Seema Malhotra has led this work and the Party has carried written content, chamber clips and video of the work.

This has been supplemented with work with the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party’s team through the course of the procurement bill, including amendments tabled by Co-op MP Florence Eshalomi MP that seek to ensure co-operatives are better able to compete in public procurement.

The Shadow Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities team has also worked with the Party to ensure that co-operative development is raised and supported through the passage of the Levelling Up Bill. Co-op MP Alex Norris has tabled amendments to the Bill seeking to ensure that Community Asset legislation was reformed, making it easier to facilitate community assets. Again this work was communicated by the Party across our platforms.

Co-ops Bill

Through the reporting period the Party has supported Co-op MP Sir Mark Hendrick’s Private Members Bill, which passed its remaining stages in the Commons and now awaits introduction in the House of Lords.

Local Government policy work

Ahead of the Local elections the Party revamped and issued a new local government manifesto tool titled ‘Build your own manifesto’ (www.party.coop/local/manifesto) and this has now been sent to members, candidates and sitting councillors. It has also been the subject of the Party’s Councillor events.

Regional Care Co-operatives

Following the publication of the Government’s Independent Review into children’s social services the Co-operative Party has worked with the report’s author to raise the profile of the proposal with Co-op Councillors. This has taken the form of written content and events. Through the reporting period a wide range of councillors and local government leaders joined together to write the Secretary of State for Education to support the proposal and call on the Government to respond positively to the report’s contents. The Party’s work was also raised and supported by Co-op MP Rachel Maskell in her backbench business Westminster debate on the report.

Social Partnerships and Public Procurement Bill in Wales

Following the work CLES and the Party carried out on employee ownership in Wales through the start of 2022, the Party has been working with Ministers and officials on potential Welsh Government amendments to the above Bill. Whilst amendments did not reach the floor of the chamber, Ministers were vocal through the Bill’s stages about the need for employee ownership growth and have committed to support new legislative proposals should there be private members legislation in the near future. This was detailed and intensive work which Party Officers played an active role in.

Party policy pamphlet on Education

In December the Party issued a policy pamphlet titled; ‘Steps to Success: Lessons from Co-operatives in Education.’ This saw the Party work with subscribing societies who play an active role in the delivery of education as well as with Trades Unions and movement organisations. The publication (Steps to Success – Lessons from Co-operatives in Education) made a series of recommendations on early years policy, the primary and secondary school provision and skills. The Party also made use of member surveying in collation of the paper, which was launched with a members’ event and Westminster roundtable. Both were attended and addressed by representatives of the Party’s Subscribing Societies. There was also a Scottish MSP roundtable on education policy as part of this work.

Other work in pursuit of this strategic objective

• The Party launched new policy on supporting Employee Ownership in England. This was complemented with a Westminster Roundtable event on the topic which was attended by the Employee Ownership Association, individual employee-owned businesses, Cwmpas and Parliamentarians. The Party carried content from the roundtable.
• The Party launched its 2023 policy process on the topic of Housing.
• The Party has begun a piece of partnership policy work and commission with Local Trust, Locality and Power to Change on the development of Community Power.
• The General Secretary has begun work as a Commissioner on a piece of work with partners such as the NFU, Public First, Arla, Fairshares and others on the topic of food security.
• The Party submitted evidence to the Lord Jim O’Neill Commission on new business start-ups.

Food justice – Healthy start vouchers

As part of the Party’s campaigning work on food justice we have taken two actions in relation to the use and availability of healthy start vouchers.:

• The first has been on the financial value of the vouchers. With inflation soaring the Party carried a call to action for the value of the vouchers to rise with inflation, meaning products such as powered baby milk would be more available within the scheme.
• The second has been on the publication of data showing that over 50,000 people are experiencing on average a year’s wait to access the newly digitalised scheme.

Both actions saw 4,000 members and supporters take the suggested campaign actions including writing to Ministers.

Energy – Great Homes Upgrade

As part of the Party’s campaigning work on energy the Party launched a campaign stream on housing energy efficiency. This work has seen the Party promote housing retrofit co-operatives, issue campaign packs, council motions and develop online campaign actions.

• Online campaign tool #cantwaittoinsulate – the Party worked with the campaigns collective to use available data to develop a tool which allows the user to enter their post code find the average EPC rating in their area and then take a range of campaign actions. The tool can be found here: #CantWaitToInsulate – Co-operative Party . Thus far we know that at least 5,000 have used the tool and taken the action.
• We supplemented the release of this tool with model press release for local councillors and PPCs.
• Campaign pack – which has gone to every member and party unit came from NEF. The Party has adapted it for use within the Party.
• Council motion has been circulated and had some pick up including Derby Council adopting the motion.

Energy – Community Energy

In recent months the Party has issued a new ‘Plan for Community Energy Growth’ which can be seen here . Through the reporting period the Party took the opportunity afforded by the Chris Skidmore Net Zero review to reiterate a call for greater support for Community Energy, especially as the review stated that Community had been ‘neglected’ by the current government. In connection with this campaigning work the Party also:

• Worked with Co-op Parliamentarians to raise the profile of the need for energy co-ops to be better supported through the Government reform to the energy sector.
• Supported and emailed members about the Co-op Group and Independent Co-op call on Government to better support community energy.

Regional Conferences

The Party has begun to deliver this year’s regional conferences. Thus far we have had:

• The South East Regional conference in Medway. The event saw co-op councillors, activists and co-ops come together to talk about future manifestos, local government campaigning and heard from Shadow Rail Minister Tan Desi MP
• In the North East Conference in Sunderland members heard from Shadow Levelling up Minister Alex Norris MP, Police and Crime Commissioners Kim McGuinness and Joy Allen as well as a range of local representatives.

100 days to election event and co-op live members’ events

As members will know the Party has greatly increased the ambition and number of our member facing online events in recent times. This reporting period has been no different.

• 100 days to local election event – the Party held an event for candidates and members ahead of local elections 2023. Well over 200 people viewed the event, which was addressed by Jim McMahon, Anneliese Dodds, Shaun Davies (Lab LGA chair), NEC member Cllr Abigail Marshall Katung and a number of Co-op representatives.

There have been a number of Co-op Live sessions through the period including:

• Over 150 attending an event on passenger voice over bus and rail services.
• Education policy.
• Warmbanks – Co-op Live for councillors.
• Warmbanks with the Co-op Group and Warm Welcome – for members.
• Credit Union growth.
• Great Homes Upgrade

Other activity in pursuance of this strategic objective

• Strong communication support for Seema Malhotra MP using the Party’s Unlock the High Street Campaign.
• Rotherham and Brent Council becoming Fairtax councils.
• Strong Party presence at Co-op UKs Practitioner Forum, CCIN Annual Conference and the General Secretary delivered an address at the Annual Community Energy Awards.
• The Party also supported and helped communicate James Murray MPs’ adjournment debate on the issue of community assets.
• The Party also supported a strong presence from the London Co-operative Party at the London Labour Party Conference.

Members and supporters’ growth

There is a separate membership report for the NEC but through the reporting period the Party worked hard to finish the year on a high and make a strong start to 2023 in terms of membership recruitment. We finished the year with a slight increase in our membership number at over 13,000 and the year has started well with 190 new members in January thus far.

There was concerted effort to grow our supporter list through the period, at the year-end reaching our target of a 15,000 increase. Clearly it is hoped that we will be able to continue the growth through the early part of 2023.

Chris Herries Scheme

We ran the first year of the Chris Herries mentoring scheme last year. This year we have revamped the format and programme a little and we have partnered with the Labour Women’s Network to provide what will be a fantastic experience and training for the selected members who join this year’s cohort. The fully funded programme has been launched and was very heavily oversubscribed, and working with LWN we have now informed the successful candidates of their inclusion on the scheme. The first event of this year’s programme is now fixed.

P6 event

In line with our strategic aims we continue to run events for non-member co-ops to find out more about the Party and hopefully take steps to join. Through the reporting period we held the last of these events for 2022.

New member event/CLP delegates event

The Party has run the last of the year’s new member sessions. These sessions are a really positive addition to our work and have proved popular with new members. The feedback from these sessions has allowed us to design an improved ‘new member email journey’ and has allowed us to identify ways to increase retention.

We have run events for Co-op Party CLP delegates only through the reporting period on topics such as #cantwaittoinsulate and the great homes upgrade.

It has been a busy time for the Party in the area of this strategic objective.

The Party has:

• Launched and conducted our Equalities Network Committee elections.
• Started to support and work with the new Equalities Network Committees.
• Launched the process for the NEC elections.
• Launched the process for the CPDC elections.
• Carried out new officer training sessions.
• Begun the Party audit of the activity of local parties.
• Had the JLM member training session.
• Renewed our training offer from iHASCO and re-advertised to officers.
• Given officers a full briefing of the year’s activity ahead.
• Supported the many local Party AGMs which often happen around this time of the year.
• Our action in the area of member retention is hugely important and on-going but ahead of a March membership reconciliation we have been in an intensive phrase of the work.

Legislatively, Mark Hendrick’s Private Members Bill titled the ‘Co-operatives, Mutuals, and Friendly Societies Bill’, which seeks to offer greater protections to co-operatives and mutuals against demutualisation and help grow the sector, will be returning for its Report Stage in the House of Commons towards the end of February. The legislation previously acquired cross-party support including Government backing, and this will be a core area of support for the Party.

On the Procurement Bill, we worked with the Shadow Cabinet Office team to lay amendments that would ensure co-operatives were considered in the legislation and the sector would be supported. With a substantial outlay each year on procurement, reducing the obstacles faced by co-operatives in contracting and giving them greater ability to secure procurement contracts could greatly help in supporting the growth of the sector. The amendments would have included co-operatives as a named business form alongside SMEs that contracting authorities would have to consider the obstacles and challenges to in the procurement process for this business form.  The amendments were sadly rejected at vote, with the Government claiming that co-operatives are already considered under the existing wording of the legislation.

We previously worked with the relevant Labour frontbench team on the Financial Services and Markets Bill to ensure the interests of mutuals and financial co-operatives are represented. Two amendments were tabled which would require the financial regulatory bodies to take greater consideration of diverse corporate form, and report back on how they have considered co-operatives and mutuals. These were further tabled at Report Stage and pushed as core amendments by the Shadow Treasury Team.

On economic crime, the Party supported frontbench amendments to the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, with a focus on Companies House reform and business registration costs. These were consistent with the campaigns of the Party, particularly around the first Economic Crime Act and our calls for where the legislation should go further.

The amendment around Companies House reform was tabled to ensure CH has the requisite powers to properly crack down on illicit activity, whilst the proposals on business registration cost would help level the playing field for co-operatives compared to other corporate form.

Our total individual membership at 31 December 2022 was approximately 13,197.

This reflects strong monthly recruitment, a low amount of arrears, low resignations and targeted retention.

Total recruitment for all of 2022 was approximately 1,794, this includes both new joiners and those who re-joined after being lapsed for a short period.

Our total subscribed supporter list (those with valid and opted-in emails) at the end of the year 2022 stood at just under 82,000. Converting supporters to members is our main recruitment source –this growth has been driven by strong campaign and policy output, and social media advertising, and the increased level of interest around Annual Conference. We continue to gain our greatest share of new members through a diverse range of targeted “Join Asks”.

Membership income for 2022 stood at around £445,000 – this is more than has been collected annually every year since modern records.

All three months were strong, but October was our second strongest month of the year with just over £31,000 in income.

We have been trialling new methods of retention, which are achieving success.

See here for details of the NEC. You can contact the NEC at nec@party.coop or by emailing Karen Wilkie, Board Secretary at board@party.coop.