Greater Manchester aims to grow co-operative development

Friday 12 January 2024

A new report is calling for further support for co-operatives in Greater Manchester to ensure the city-region stays at the forefront of co-operative development and bring even greater economic benefits to the local community.

The report is the work of the Co-operative Commission, announced in the summer of 2018, by Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, and tasked with developing a policy for co-ops in the city region.

Over 160,000 people in Greater Manchester are already members of a co-operative, and collectively these co-operatives contribute £73 million to the local economy. “As the home of the co-operative movement, it’s vital we harness those values and put them at the centre of everything we do, working with co-operatives and social enterprises to build a stronger, fairer Greater Manchester where nobody is left behind,” said Mr Burnham.

“Through the work of the Commission, we have an opportunity to do things differently and explore new and innovative ways to nurture, grow and work more closely with the co-operative sector so it plays a central role in making Greater Manchester one of the best places in the world to grow up, get on and grow old.”

Credit unions have almost 65,000 members across Greater Manchester, with over £28 million in savings between them members of credit unions across the city-region saved £7.5 million in loan interest by borrowing from a credit union rather than high-cost or doorstep lending.

To enable credit unions to provide more financial services to a wider range of people, the report suggests the Mayor of Greater Manchester will lobby Government for:

• relaxation of capital requirements
• maintenance of proportionate regulation
• a review of the Credit Union Act
• investment in credit unions

David Batten, Chair of Credit Unions for Greater Manchester, a consortium of the largest community credit unions across the region, and also a committee member on the Co-operative Commission said: “I was very pleased to represent Credit Unions for Greater Manchester and other credit unions in the city-region on the Commission. It is gratifying that the Mayor has already committed to accepting the recommendations of the Commission.

“The Commission now moves into a delivery phase and I look forward to working with the Combined Authority to promote credit unions across the city-region and to assisting the Mayor in lobbying government for credit union law reform.”

Source Co-operative News