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Principles met

  • Community leadership and a new role for councillors

    We will explore ways for councils to act as a platform for helping the community to contribute to local outcomes, and to re-think the role of councillors as community connectors, brokers and leaders.

  • Enterprise and social economy

    We will promote community-based approaches to economic development that focus on supporting the creation of jobs, social enterprises and other businesses and providing an environment for co-operative and mutual enterprises to thrive.

  • Maximising social value

    We will support the development of a framework and criteria for social value, giving substance to the concept and supporting Councils with the tools to ensure better local social and economic outcomes.

  • New models of meeting priority needs

    In exploring new ways of meeting the priority needs of our communities we will encourage models, such as co-operatives and mutuals, which give greater influence and voice to staff and users. in designing and commissioning public services and in determining the use of public resources.

The Royal Borough of Greenwich has a long history of co-operative development, dating back to the origins of the co-operative movement. The co-operative approach fits with the Council’s support for developing alternative models for economic growth to help grow a more locally beneficial and sustainable economy.

 

Community Wealth Building

The Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) was commissioned to produce a Community Wealth Building (CWB) strategy for the borough. The Council adopted the strategy in July 2022 and is developing an Inclusive Economy Strategy alongside the CWB strategy.

Anchor Partnership

A key aim of the CWB strategy was to establish the ‘Anchored in Greenwich’ partnership to bring together organisations rooted in the local economy, with a stake in the borough as major employers, alongside considerable purchasing power, land and assets, or as co- operatives or community interest organisations, such as the University of Greenwich, Peabody, London and South East College Group (LSEC), Peabody Housing Association and Greenwich Co-operative Development Agency (GCDA).

Partners launched an Anchored in Greenwich Charter in November 2022 to publicise the work of the partnership and its commitment to using spending and employment power and land and assets to achieve its goals. CLES estimated that the combined value of the Council and anchor organisations’ annual spend is £1bn. A modest 1.8% increase in spending with local supply chains could add £18m to the local economy and create almost 600 jobs a year, alongside other multiplier effects and savings to the wider public purse.

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