Cameron and Clegg call for big push on new mutuals
David Cameron and Nick Clegg, in back to back speeches last week, declared their intention to support the creation of a new generation of mutual and employee owned businesses.
Both the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister announced that Coalition Government will spend this year identifying new measures to incentivise setting up or transitioning into new employee owned organisations – a move welcomed with enthusiasm by Baxi Partnership.
The Deputy Prime Minister opened the week (January 16th) calling for a “John Lewis economy” in which more individuals have a stake in their companies and for this to be “the decade of employee share ownership”.
Just days later, (January 19th) the Prime Minister set out his vision for a genuinely responsible capitalism that would see more people holding a direct stake in the economy and greater autonomy, in turn driving increased employee satisfaction.
Responding to the Government’s announcements, Peter Stocks, Managing Partner of Baxi Partnership, said: “Giving employees a stake and a say in their own businesses changes the way that people feel about coming to work in the morning which in turn creates stronger more productive businesses – it is clear why the Government would want to support more companies to embrace this approach.
“Through sharing wealth, knowledge and influence over the business, employee owned companies tend to be more productive, more innovative and operate in a more sustainable way than their non-mutual peers. The UK economy only stands to gain from supporting more businesses to share ownership among their employees.”
Specific announcements in both speeches included:
- As the Minister responsible for mutuals in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Ed Davey will commission a review of the existing barriers to the creation of more employee owned business and identify ways to tackle them, including:
- Addressing ignorance around employee ownership among employees, owners and business advisers
- Does the tax system treat employee owned firms fairly?
- Do we need an off-the-peg employee ownership business model?
- Can we give employees a right to request ownership in their firms?
- Nick Clegg will host a summit this summer on employee ownership
- The Government will create a Co-operatives Bill to bring together and simplify more than a dozen outdated pieces of legislation governing co-operatives and mutuals into a single statute to be put before parliament before the next election. The Bill will also carry any additional legislative measures needed cut red tape around setting up mutuals.
