A clear part of the vision that has been set out is the role that mutualism can play in our economy, public services and wider society.

In the wake of the global financial crisis and the parliamentary expenses scandal, it is clear that people are no longer prepared to trust large organisations over which they have no control.

This is why across the public and private sector, we are encouraging the growth and creation of organisations that give real power to all of us, as parents and patients, customers and employees, carers and the wider community. Organisations with values, accountable to everyone with a stake in their success, and where long term social returns are put ahead of short term gain.

There is no sector more in need of these values than financial services. That is why we are creating new institutions in banking, including a mutual People’s Bank, and a step change in affordable lending by credit unions, funded through a new banking levy. We will strengthen the building society sector, seek to find a mutual solution for Northern Rock and ensure that we build more stable foundations for our financial sector in the future.

We will rebuild our economy through taking an approach to business that will help underpin the stability of the UK economy, and ensure that all people, not just the few, will be able to share in its rewards. We will take action to ensure that more of Britain’s workers have a stake in their company by widening share ownership and creating more employee-owned and trust-owned businesses, and make it easier for mutuals and co-operatives to run Britain’s rail services.

We will reform and protect our public services through trusting people to make decisions and exercise control over the public services that they use, and in some cases deliver. Co-operative trust schools, foundation trust hospitals, new mutuals in Sure Start and ‘right to request’ social enterprises in new areas of public services will all form part of this new approach, building public services that are of the community, by the community and for the community.

Whether it’s a question of saving their football club, their local pub or even the planet – co-operative and mutual organisations are already a means through which people can collectively meet their aspirations and help change behaviour for the better, and we will create the conditions that will allow them to thrive.

The new politics will not just be about giving the country greater power over parliament but also other public institutions. We will give the British people a direct say over the protection and maintenance of our built historic legacy and our canals, through converting both English Heritage and British Waterways into mutual organisations.

Unlike the Conservative party, our proposals are rooted in Labour’s founding values and our DNA. Our new drive for mutualism is not a departure from what we have done before, but is in tune with our shared values that we have held throughout our history.

We only have to look to the ‘Conservative Co-operative Movement’ to see how skin deep and cynical their proposals really are. Two years ago, to much media fanfare, David Cameron launched the Conservative Co-operative Movement. For its first 18 months it existed without any mechanism for people to join, its chairs have been appointed from on high rather than by the community, and it is yet to found a single co-operative in either the public or private sector other than itself.

Whether we’re talking about securing the recovery, reforming public services or building the new politics, one thing is clear. A fairer future for all will not be built by government alone, but in partnership with the people that we are there to serve. Devolving power will be key to this vision and we will do all that we can transfer power to people in every area of their lives, from their place of employment, to the houses that they live in, and the services that they rely on.

Photo: Leo Reynolds 2009