creating sustainable communities

Government cannot build sustainable communities alone. Doing so requires trusting people to make decisions over the services that they use, as well as the control of public services. From tackling climate change to building new affordable homes, co-operative and mutual organisations can deliver new and radical changes to the society in which we live. The role of the co-operative sector is crucial as we seek to move to a more sustainable society.

Opening up Participatory Democracy
If we are to rebuild our political system and our economy, we will need to find new ways to increase participation and devolve power within our society. We commend the work that has been done to develop participatory budgeting in this country and believe that greater measures should be taken to involve all of us in how our money is spent. We should also explore how new technologies could combine delegation with social networking – to ensure that those who take part in debates constitute a representative sample of the population.

Transferring Power to Communities
Local Government should do much more to deliver power and ownership of local services to the communities that depend on them. We believe that community-based and new mutual organisations have a vital role to play in running local services, tackling crime and anti-social behaviour, engaging young people and regenerating run-down neighbourhoods.

Energy and Climate Change
Experts have a tendency to see solutions to fuel poverty, energy security and climate change as competing, conflicting and irresolvable. Yet a movement towards communities collectively owning their own energy has the potential to meet all three of these challenges head on. The ‘collective power’ model provides a blueprint for how this can be done – building a broad based social movement by combining an appeal to self interest with a commitment to combating climate change.

Delivering High-Quality Affordable Housing
The tectonic shift that has occurred in the global financial markets means that the housing landscape in the UK will never be the same again. One result will be that many thousands of UK households will be caught in the gap between affordable rent and home ownership. The ‘New Foundations’ model is a new form of intermediate home ownership that can ensure these new and emerging households have access to a decent home that they can afford, and allows them to accumulate a financial stake.

Building Stronger Communities
Through housing co-operative and other mutual organisations, tenants and residents have taken real control over decisions that affect their lives and created strong and cohesive communities. We should take action to embed co-operative and mutual housing solutions at the heart of its overall strategy. Local authorities and other park providers should explore the use of community land trusts for parks and open spaces.

Food, Farming and Rural Communities
The decline in the availability of rural services has been well documented, with pubs, shops and other services closing at a faster rate than ever before. Rural co-operatives and social enterprises are often the only viable alternative for rural communities looking to retain or re-introduce a service in areas of private or public market failure. We should establish a ‘community right to try’ in rural communities, which would give them the option and time frame of six months to consider taking over a service.

Tackling Crime and Disorder
The role of local crime fighting partnerships has been crucial in making the reduction of crime a key priority for local authorities and other partners as well as for the police. Introducing a broad based and open membership to these bodies can make a real difference in their effectiveness, and drive further reduction of the level of crime within our communities.

Animal Rights
Throughout its history, the Co-operative Movement has had a proud record on animal rights. We commend the work that this Government has done over the last ten years in this regard, and call for the full implementation of legislation to extend and improve the protection of animals.

Public Transport and Promoting Sustainable Travel
For over a year, the Co-operative Party has fought the ‘People’s Rail’ campaign to give the British public real power over Network Rail. Yet it is not just the rail network where there is an accountability gap. The recent forced nationalisation of the East Coast mainline demonstrates the degree to which private sector operators can often seek to socialise risk and privatise reward. The Government should use the opportunity created by nationalisation to create a new mutual provider as a public sector comparator to the other train operating companies.
Get involved in the 'People's Rail' campaign.

Culture and Sport
Cultural and sporting bodies play a powerful role in the life of the nation and often receive large subsidies. More needs to be done to ensure that they put the needs and interests of their fans and enthusiasts first. Giving ordinary people a say over the way that these organisations are run is the best way to ensure that this occurs.

For full details of our poliices on community issues, please view our draft manifesto.