Big Apple to get taste of our Preston Model

Labour leader of Preston City Council says he is “privileged” to be addressing a conference in New York about wealth building in the community.
Council leader coun Matthew Brown (r) with shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who was on a visit to DeepdaleCouncil leader coun Matthew Brown (r) with shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who was on a visit to Deepdale
Council leader coun Matthew Brown (r) with shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who was on a visit to Deepdale

Coun Matthew Brown was invited to speak at the Who Owns the World conference in the Big Apple about the Preston Model.

He will be jetting off to New York City on Thursday to give his talk, flight costs covered, and returning to Preston in time for Remembrance Sunday.

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“They want to hear about the work in Preston on Community Wealth Building and have kindly offered to cover the cost of me attending,” said coun Brown.

“At the conference are some quite notable speakers including Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, New York City’s Deputy Mayor J. Philip Thompson and a number of representatives from the UK from the Labour and Cooperative movement with Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP recording a video address.”

He added: “Next month we are beginning our project to establish 10 worker owned businesses in Preston with the University of Central Lancashire, Cooperatives UK and others.

“A similar project in the Bronx takes place at the same time and there is growing collaboration between US and UK cities to support local economies that work for everyone which helped ensure our project received external funding.

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“We now have two new worker owned businesses in Preston – The Larder and Preston Digital Foundation.

"This conference will explore how workers can use online platforms in sectors like cleaning, care, digital and the taxi industry to push up wages and terms and conditions which we will explore in Preston.

"This is in addition to our commitment to establish with partners a North West Community Bank.”