• WHILE Jeremy Corbyn’s call for a change of direction in the provision of public services in Camden and other local authorities is welcome, a return to a council-managed labour workforce in the traditional style may not always be the best way to go, (Corbyn message to town hall: Go in-house, April 12).

While the elimination of the “them-and-us” division between those providing services on the one hand and private owners and shareholders on the other is a step forward, many progressive councils around the country are finding that establishing co-operative forms of operation, in which the workers themselves play a major role in the design, management and running of services, can reap real benefits in the motivation of the workforce and hence in the standards of provision.

The co-operative path is being followed successfully and in increasing numbers by many forms of enterprise in this country. There are more than 6,000 co-ops, ranging from food retail to funerals and from social care to housing, a trend reflected in the Labour Party’s manifesto plan to double the size of the co-operative movement in its next term of office.

Camden has long been known for its innovatory thinking, so whenever it is contemplating the return of privatised services to the public sector its first consideration could and should be an assessment of whether a service can be better delivered in a co-operative way, to the benefit of both those workers delivering the service and those receiving it.

PHIL TURNER
Leader of Camden Council 1982-86
Secretary, Camden Co-operative Party