Talks have taken place about creating co-operative businesses powered by the financial muscles of some of Lancashire’s biggest hitters.
Coun Matthew Brown, the cabinet member for community engagement on Preston Council, has confirmed the University of Central Lancashire, Preston College, Lancashire Police and the Community Gateway Association housing group are among those bodies he has spoken with.
The proposal is to get these local bodies to agree to buy goods and services from co-operatives set up with the purpose of supplying these services.
It follows a visit from Ted Howard, who has led the creation of a number of co-operatives backed by public bodies in the United States, to Preston in October.
Coun Brown said: “We have all agreed to work towards the idea of these ‘anchor institutions’ which spend millions of pounds every year on buying in goods and services, being the backers of co-operative and worker-owned businesses.
“In the United States, Ted has worked on a number of projects, including in renewable energy, where this has worked.”
For a more on the co-operative movement, see a full feature in your lepbusinessweek supplement in Tuesday’s Lancashire Evening Post.
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