Cooperative Activity in Preston

* Report: Co-operative Activity in Preston. A Report written for Preston City Council by the Psychosocial Research Unit, University of Central Lancashire.

URL = http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/14526/1/Co-operative%20activity%20PrestonREPORT%20copy.pdf

Focuses on the 'Anchor Institutions' focused model of city development, pioneered in Cleveland, Ohio with the Evergreen Cooperatives, and here practiced in the UK city of Preston, aka the 'Preston Model'.

Description

"In 2015 Preston City Council commissioned UCLan to pursue a pilot research project and report into co-operative activity in Preston with a view to contributing to the Council’s policy developments in promoting the local economy and strengthening local democracy.

This report is intended to respond to the Council’s aims in city development strategies, which include:

• Working with a number of ‘anchor based’ institutions: Following the Cleveland Evergreen Co-operatives example (http://www.evgoh.com), identify ‘anchor’ institutions that are major wealth creators in Preston and encourage more local activity and procurement.

• Increasing the amount spent on goods and services in the local economy: Following on from working with anchor institutions, find other ways of encouraging wealth creation in the local economy.

• Creating a number of new worker owned businesses: Encourage the creation of workerowned co-operatives to fill in the gaps identified by local businesses investing elsewhere.

• Encouraging companies to sell the business to the employees when the owner retires: Disseminating ‘Simply Buyout’ resource a guide to employees buying businesses instead of investors (http://www.uk.coop/resources/simply-buyout)

• Creating or encouraging the establishment of a credit union: Guild Money Credit Union was created in November 2015 to facilitate affordable and ethical loans for the local economy (http://www.preston.gov.uk/news/2015/nov/guild-money-credit-unioninformation-day)