It has been my honour to be elected as West Midlands Representative on the National Executive Committee of the Cooperative Party in 2017 and again in 2020. I am also delighted to have been elected as Chair of the Policy Committee in 2020. Social Care and the building back of Town Centres will be the focus of Policy development and consultation for the Party nationally in 2021/22
In the meantime we have been busy developing a vision and a program for the West Midlands. A six-step journey to building our Region back better than it was before.
We want to see our Region under progressive leadership, to have a Mayor for the West Midlands who is committed to a new, greener and more sustainable future. A leadership that sees the longer-term value of working within a framework of cooperative principles.
A wider cooperative approach that embraces issues such as Housing, Social Care, the use of community assets for the common good, and a commitment to social finance including a community bank.
We want to harness the potential of local anchor institutions and progressive region wide procurement to get our assets and services working for everyone, with social value and common decency at the forefront of decision making.
We want to see local co-operative friendly finance underwriting democratically owned community banks and financial institutions. Giving cooperatives the opportunity to compete at the scale and pace that is needed. Establishing Community Innovation Districts to establish and scale co-operative enterprises.
So the six stage process towards a new more sustainable West Midlands is:
Step one: Progressive Regional Leadership
Step two: Harnessing the power of Anchor Institutions
Step three: Progressive Regional Procurement
Step four: Co-operative Development Districts
Step five: Local Investment
Step six: Assets and services working for our communities
A new way of working and living is possible if we can reach out and embrace it.
Chris Bain 