Cooperative and Mutual Economy 2023

Cooperative and Mutual Economy 2023

27 September 2023

Launched by Cooperatives UK, this is the first and only comprehensive report on the UK’s democratic economy, which represents all those businesses and organisations that give people, collectively, genuine control and ownership – co-operatives, mutuals, employee-owned businesses and friendly societies.  To view the report, click on this link: Coops and Mutual Economy 2023.

Some of the key findings are:

• £87.9 billion income and 74 million memberships in the democratic economy: Demonstrating the value people place on genuine ownership and control
• Resilience and longevity: Co-operatives are over twice as likely to survive the early years of trading when compared to other start-up businesses
• Sector growth: Increase in all sectors of the democratic economy, including co-operatives (1.1%) and employee-owned businesses increased (37.7%).  The five largest democratically-owned businesses in the UK in 2022 were: Royal London (first, with turnover of £11.8 billion), the Coop, John Lewis, Forester Life (AFM member) and Nationwide Building Society.
• Community impact: Co-operatives play a significant role in community development, with a remarkable 62.6% increase in the number of community-owned pubs over the past five years
• Sustainability: Co-operatives are well-positioned to contribute to a just transition to green energy, with the number of co-operatives operating in the energy and environment sector increasing by 18.58% over the last five years
• Policy advocacy: Cooperatives UK has launched a policy platform urging political parties to commit to co-operative expansion: www.uk.coop/coopgrowth

co-operative-democratic-economy-2023