Lambeth sets out goal of becoming UK's first co-operative council by 2014

Lambeth Council has announced its intention to become the country’s first-ever co-operative council, and is considering offering taxpayers a discount on their council tax if they get involved in running local services.

The London borough plans to offer residents the opportunity to have a bigger role in running local services. The council said it has been trialling the model for four years.

A Citizens’ Commission, which is holding its first meeting today (27 May), will consult local people on the proposals.

It will be tasked with identifying new services where the co-operative model can be piloted, and exploring how the approach can be rolled out further.

The Commission will also consider how an “active citizens’ dividend” could be paid to reward people for helping to run services. One option is a council-tax discount.

In a white paper, Lambeth said it wanted the new arrangements to be fully in place by 2014.

It added: “Our journey of improvement has provided us with a strong foundation on which to build. However, the scale of the challenges ahead and our ideas which seek to address them, mean that our current approach to service delivery will not be fit-for-purpose in future.

“Incremental change will therefore not be enough and we need to embark on a radical approach to public services if we are to deliver on our ambitions.”

The council said it had already made a number of advances in adopting a co-operating approach. It now claims to have more tenant-managed housing estates than any other borough and to have transferred more assets to community control than any other council. These include Raleigh Hall, which is set to be come the country’s first National Black Heritage centre, and the Old Lilian Baylis community sports hub operating out of a disuses secondary school in Vauxhall

It has also set up community-led services such as 2XL, a peer mentoring programme designed to cut youth reoffending levels, and the country’s first parent-promoted secondary school in West Norwood.

Lambeth Council leader Steve Reed said: “Lambeth has spent the past four years exploring how the community can get more involved in running local services. In widely different service areas like schools, housing and tackling crime, we’ve learnt it can deliver better services that cost less.

“Now we will take the model further and become the first council in the country to apply cooperative values across the board. Our model empowers people to get on and make the changes they want to see in their local area, building better services and a stronger civic society at the same time.”

The white paper sets out seven key principles to guide the process of change. They are:

• The council as a strong community leader
• Providing services at the appropriate level, personalised and community based
• Citizens and communities empowered to design and deliver services and play an active role in their local community
• Public services enabling residents to engage in civil society through employment opportunities
• A settlement between public services, Lambeth’s communities and the citizen (this is what it will provide, this is what the citizen will do for themselves) underpinned by its desire for justice, fairness and responsibility
• Taking responsibility for services – regardless of where they are accessed or which agency provides them
• Simple, joined up and easy access to services – location and transaction; “one place to do it all”, “one form, one time to do it all” – providing visible value for money.

Lambeth has set up a ‘wiki’ page – allowing visitors to comment on and edit content – in a bid to encourage online collaboration.