Co-operatives UK

09/10/2026

A few of our team have been at the brilliant Beyond The Music Manchester this week. Beyond the Music is a music conference and festival with a difference. That difference? It’s a co-operative! Working to bring together artists, industry leaders, music fans and policymakers to create and more progressive and equitable music industry. Our CEO, and a Beyond the Music Co-Founder, Rose Marley talks about what makes this festival different! 👏

08/10/2026

What happens when a music festival is owned by the people who go to it?

Our CEO Rose Marley opened Beyond The Music 2026 in Salford this week. It's an annual music and creative industries conference and festival, with bands galore, passion, networking and some serious conversations.

The important bit is that it's a co-operative, and we're a founding member. As Rose told the crowd: "Beyond The Music, the members are you."

Music, film and TV share the same worries about fairness and who's in control, but they too often work in silos. Can that change? With its long history of collective action, could Greater Manchester lead the way?

Full story from Prolific North 👇
https://www.prolificnorth.co.uk/news/co-operatives-uk-chief-exec-and-beyond-the-music-co-founder-calls-for-more-shared-ownership-and-fairer-creative-economy-at-events-2026-opening/

Beyond the Music chair and co-founder, Rose Marley urged the music and creative industries to work together and put shared ownership into practice at the opening of the annual conference in Salford this morning.

05/10/2026

📣 Crank up your co‑op’s comms capability at Practitioners Forum – on 26 November in Manchester.

🗣️ Our Communications Forum has four top‑notch sessions to help you connect with your audiences and communicate with greater confidence:

📱 Social media engagement: Create content that gets people talking.
📸 Put your co‑op in the picture: Take better photos with your smartphone.
🎯 Comms strategy without the overwhelm: Get your focus and direction, easily.
📰 Beyond the press release: Put your strongest stories in front of the right audiences.

Or you can mix and match with Membership, Governance, HR and Finance & Assurance sessions – to get exactly the right combination for your co‑op’s needs.

🎟️ Book now: https://buff.ly/SwGzisb

03/10/2026

We’ve had a great time in London at the Confederation of Co-operative Housing (CCH) conference today. It’s been a great opportunity for us to talk about the ways we can support co-operatives and speak to some of our members. Thanks to Blase, Jane and the team for having us. It was good to hear updates around governance, the need for increased awareness of housing co-ops as a preferred option for local councils and clearer processes for raising issues for social housing. We hope everyone had a great day!

02/10/2026

"What an incredible week for our co‑operative movement.

"On Thursday (last week) we published our Co‑operative and Mutual Economy report.

"There are more than 8,000 co‑operatives in the UK – but at the current rate of growth, doubling the sector would take more than 150 years. We said our movement needed more.

"By Friday evening, the UK government had announced £10 million for co‑operative development, putting it in the hands of mayors and strategic authorities.

"Then at Labour Party conference, co‑operatives kept coming up in conversations without us having to raise them. And the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, told conference that the UK he believes in is "a union of nations that gave trade unions and the co‑operative movement to the world."

"It really feels like things are changing. But there's still so much hard work to do to make the most of this moment.

"I've recorded a short video and written more in my latest blog, including what's coming up at Beyond the Music in Salford (6–9 October) and the UK Social Enterprise Awards in Manchester (12 November).

"Let's work together, amplify each other and stay noisy."

Read our CEO Rose Marley's blog: https://buff.ly/s5MKwBE

30/09/2026

☀️ More good news! £20 million is now available for community-owned energy projects.

The Great British Energy Community Fund has opened its first application window with staged grant funding to help community energy projects move from idea to delivery.

It's for community organisations and co-operative societies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, where the project will be at least 50% community-owned when operational.

Grimsby Community Energy is a good example of what this can unlock. They received £99,000 in development funding to go towards lowering local energy bills and reinvesting profits back into the community.

👉 Full guidance and how to apply: https://buff.ly/Ycj1xLt – the application window is open for eight weeks.

If you need support with getting your community energy project off the ground, you can get in touch with us at [email protected].

27/09/2026

It's Labour Party Conference time! Here's a rundown of fringe sessions and roundtables our CEO Rose Marley is speaking at:

Sunday 27 September
• Roundtable: Pricing young people out of work - can the high street solve our NEETs crisis? 5:15pm, Liverpool ONE Management Suite

Monday 28 September
• BB Lab 2026: Power in Place – How Can the Next Wave of Devolution Create Stronger Communities, More Local Ownership and Lasting Prosperity? 10:15am, Revolution Bar, Albert Dock
• Roundtable: Delivering Good Growth: How Do We Unlock the Potential of the Mutual Sector? 3:30pm, Malmaison Hotel
• Manchesterism, the Productive State & Building a Democratic Economy –4:15pm, The Clubhouse, Ropewalks Hotel

Rose and our Policy team are there across the event, so say hello!

26/09/2026

Great to see The Guardian coverage of yesterday’s government announcement of new funding for high streets and communities – including a new £10m Co-operative Development Programme. Our CEO Rose Marley is quoted in the article: “This funding shows a government that understands how giving power and agency to communities brings positive change and improves lives, with community, business and local government all working together.”

Read our full reaction via the link in comments. 🎉

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/sep/25/burnham-pledges-extra-210m-regenerate-high-streets

Funds to help local people turn empty shops, pubs and clubs into community hubs, shared workspaces and cafes

25/09/2026

Big news for community ownership and co-operatives 🎉

Government has announced a new £10m Co-operative Development Programme for England. It will help create more co-operatives (yep, you read it right).

It's part of a £210m package to bring high streets back to life, including support for communities to take over the pubs, shops and local spaces they love.

When communities come together, they can save the places that matter to them. Just look at the Ultimate Picture Palace in Oxford, where locals bought shares to keep their independent cinema going.

What's the one place on your high street you'd want to see community-owned? Tell us in the comments,

Read the full story (link in comments) 👇

24/09/2026

Did you know there are more than 11,000 co-operatives, mutuals and other democratically owned businesses across the UK – generating £241 billion a year and employing 1.7 million people?

Our new Co-operative and Mutual Economy 2026 report is out, and it shows something we've always believed: businesses owned by their members do things differently.

They're more likely to grow to a real size. More than twice as likely to still be trading five years on. Four times more likely to pay the real Living Wage. And you're just as likely to find one outside London and the South East as in it – in villages and market towns as much as big cities.

That's what good growth looks like: fair, resilient, and rooted in the communities it serves. Do any of these stats surprise you? Tell us why 👇

The report link is in the comments – give it a read and please share!