Thank you to Progress and the Co-operative party for hosting tonight’s event.
I’m delighted to be here today in the North West, the spiritual home of mutualism, at this, what I described last month as the ‘mutual moment’.
But I want to begin tonight, by briefly recalling a lesson from my time as a Labour candidate during the 1980s. I must have knocked on hundreds of doors on estates where people were enthusiastically purchasing their own homes under the Tories’ ‘right to buy’ legislation.
In conversation after conversation, I encountered incredulity that, by opposing the policy, Labour appeared intent on frustrating the aspirations of many of its lifelong supporters.
Alongside the ‘Tell Sid’ privatisations, and the wave of building society demutualisations, council house sales were, of course, critical in allowing the right to create a politically compelling vision of a mass property and share-owning democracy.
It was a vision to which Labour failed to provide a modern, attractive alternative. Instead, we clung to an outdated notion of ‘public ownership’ – remote, Whitehall-run nationalised industries and town hall-run municipal housing.
The right correctly identified the public’s desire to seek new ways to exercise control and ownership, but its agenda turned out to be flawed in so many respects.
The mutual moment
Indeed, the demutualisation of the building societies symbolised the very attitude – the prioritisation of short-term gains over long-term consequences – that caused the banking crisis.
In part sparked by that crisis, a new debate is now emerging about ownership, one that I am convinced that progressives can shape and win.
And we can do so by recognising that just as demutualisation reflected popular sentiment in the 1980s, so mutualism – with its values of trust and reciprocity, common ownership and co-operation – can capture the mood of these times.
The public have now made it clear they are unwilling to put their trust in large organisations that they feel are not run in their interests and operate too far outside their control.
Thus public support has shifted towards organisations with values; where long-term social returns are put ahead of short-term gains, and which are accountable to those with a stake in their success.
And public services will not be immune from this new public mood, either.
Mutualism and public services
That’s why I’m here in Manchester, home of the Co-operative, to look at the lessons public services can learn from a company owned by its 4.5 million members. One where members have a direct influence on how the business is run, and one where corporate values – the commitment to ethical investment, the environment, human rights and fair trade – reflect the values of its members.
The Co-operative’s influence on public services is already being felt in the 27 new co-operative trust schools that have already opened their doors, including Phil’s at Reddish Vale, and the new Manchester Academy, both of which I’ve been learning about today. Here, the owners are parents, teachers and the local community the schools serve.
In short, they are schools which reflect our belief that public services are owned by the public, so the public must have the right to influence them.
Around the country – in the social care co-ops I’ve visited in Oldham today; amongst the PCT staff who are taking over the running of the services they deliver; or the 1.3 million members of NHS foundation trusts – mutualism is proving its worth.
For by bringing users, employees, and other stakeholders together as members of the same establishment, mutualism transforms the organisational culture, embeds real democratic accountability, and offers the opportunity for greater individual empowerment and community responsibility.
I believe the opportunity now exists to enable citizens and communities to choose mutualism as and when they see fit.
So I’m exploring how we make that happen, particularly in areas like sure start, social care and housing. Areas where the Co-operative party in particular has been setting out an exciting agenda for change.
The Tories
I know that the Tories too have been proclaiming their interest in mutualism.
But the level of their commitment is, however, reflected in the fact that the Conservative Co-operative Movement, launched with such fanfare by David Cameron over two years ago, does not yet have a single member.
By contrast, mutualism is in Labour’s DNA, for it was out of the mutual tradition that the modern Labour and co-operative movement emerged.
And while we are seeking to learn lessons from the Co-operative and employee-owned mutuals like John Lewis, Tory local authorities – which David Cameron offers as a model for how the Tories would govern – have decided that their model of public service delivery is the budget airline.
This Tory model encapsulates the principle that ability to pay should determine the level and quality of the service.
But this is not how most people think care of the elderly or children’s services should be delivered.
It is also far removed from the values of mutualism. The reason is a simple one: the values of mutualism are inherently Labour and co-operative values.
Which is why, driven by values which reflect the public mood, progressives now need confidence, clarity and conviction.
Unlike 30 years ago, the debate about ownership with which this new decade begins is one that will be fought squarely on our territory.