Mutuals could run social care and housing
Author: Local Government Chronicle |
Ministers are examining the scope to enable mutuals to run services in social care, housing and children’s centres, Cabinet Office minister Tessa Jowell has revealed
The government has asked an independent commission, chaired by economist and ex-Observer editor Will Hutton, to investigate applying the model developed by the John Lewis Partnership retail chain to new policy areas.
The Commission on Ownership will be under the auspices of the Centre for Mutual & Employee-Owned Business of the University of Oxford and is hoped to feature trade unionists who have largely so far been sceptical of the model.
In a speech, Ms Jowell will highlight mutuals’ place in the Labour tradition.
Ms Jowell will say, on public services: “On the supply side, we need to do more than hold up the model of the relentlessly managed plc. We should look instead at other successful ways of delivering goods and services.
“There are important lessons to be learned from studying how the Co-op and John Lewis work, companies owned, respectively, by their customers and their staff.”