Labour and Co-operative MP Jim McMahon has praised the energy and ambition of the co-operative movement after joining activists, community leaders and campaigners from across the North West at the Co-operative Party’s Community Britain conference in Manchester.
McMahon said the event focused on turning co-operative principles into practical action, with discussions ranging from community ownership of pubs and sports grounds to housing, energy and enterprise.
Writing on X, he said:
“I was delighted to join co-operators, activists and community leaders from across the North West at the Co-op Party Community Britain conference in Manchester.”
He added:
“From community ownership of important assets like pubs, sporting grounds and more, the ideas discussed today are about turning that principle into practical action.”
McMahon also highlighted the potential of co-operative and community-led approaches to housing, energy and local enterprise, arguing that they can help give people a greater stake in the places where they live.
The conference forms part of a wider debate about how more economic and political power can be shifted into communities and how local people can be given a stronger say over the assets and services that matter to them.
McMahon said:
“There is a huge amount of energy and ambition across our movement.”
He argued that the challenge now was to turn that energy into a broader programme for communities across Britain.
“Our job now is to harness it and build a Community Britain where power, opportunity and prosperity are shared more fairly.”
The message closely reflects the wider direction of Labour under Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who has repeatedly argued that Britain cannot be rebuilt solely from Westminster and that communities should be given greater power over their own futures.
Community ownership has increasingly been presented by Labour and Co-operative figures as one way to protect valued local assets, strengthen high streets and keep more wealth circulating within local economies. The Co-operative Party’s Community Power agenda, and Gordon Brown’s recent case for co-operative ownership, point in the same direction.
Supporters argue that co-operative housing can give residents a stronger voice, community energy can allow local people to benefit directly from the transition to cleaner power, and co-operative businesses can provide a more inclusive model of ownership.
McMahon’s intervention underlines the growing prominence of these ideas within the Labour movement. As Co-operative Party chair, he has long argued that co-operation should sit at the heart of how communities are rebuilt.
For him, the objective is not simply to promote individual co-operative projects, but to build a wider political model in which power, opportunity and prosperity are shared more fairly across the country.
