• YOUR Comment (What better place to revive the Co-operative ideal? July 1) rightly pointed to the important role that co-operatives can play in rebuilding our shattered economy post-Covid in a socially-responsible and equitable way.

All the evidence is that hardly anyone wants to return to the kind of rampant profiteering that led to the financial crisis of 2008 and the years of austerity that followed.

And certainly nobody wants to see thousands of people continuing having to survive with the help of food banks.

The co-operative movement is ready to help all those who want to tackle this problem or are already doing so and to “build back better”. It is not a case of having to revive the “Co-operative ideal” but of reinforcing it, because it already exists.

There are already over 7,000 independent co-ops in this country, ranging from housing to social care provision and from funeral services to the thriving local convenience stores now so numerous on our high streets, in total with 250,000 staff, 14 million members, and a turnover of £40billion.

Camden’s flourishing Co-operative Party exists to support co-operation in all its forms and we therefore give a warm welcome to Camden’s Renewal Commission and its clear readiness to look at co-operative alternatives to the predominant short-termism of business in this country, concentrating as it does on maximising shareholder benefit rather than long-term stability for employees, members, and the communities they serve.

Camden Co-operative Party welcomes new members. More information on this can be found at www.party.coop.

PHIL TURNER
Secretary
Camden Co-operative Party