Making your vote and voice count in 2025
All year-round, our members collectively shape our business plans and campaigns to make sure we're doing right by you, because we're owned by you.
See how, together, we've made a difference in 2025 below...
You said, we did
Every year, our National Members’ Council puts forward three motions to our AGM. In 2025, these were inspired by the views of members as part of our Big Co-op Survey, covering the issues of:
Hate divides communities, co-operation builds them
Empowering member owners to start, choose, understand and grow co-ops
Supporting member owners with the cost of living and responsible consumption
The above were all overwhelmingly approved, and you can watch our video updates on how we’ve made members’ voices count since they voted below.
Highlights for our motion on hate divides communities, co-operation builds them
Highlights for our motion on empowering member owners to start, choose, understand and grow co-ops
Highlights for our motion on supporting member owners with the cost of living and responsible consumption
2025 Member Motions
In 2025, we also received two Member Motions from member owners themselves. These were on the topics of Animal Welfare and Trading with Israel and you can find updates on these below.
'Join In' with the Co-op you own
Every month, we invite our members to ‘Join In’ with opportunities from around Co-op and our partnerships, getting your views and sharing the latest on important issues, products, and services to help us do right by you because we’re owned by you. In 2025, member owners joined in over 1,300,000 times across 141 opportunities. Across the year, three opportunities stood out for members choosing, learning, shaping and taking part. These were:
83,000 member owners celebrated the second ever UN International Year of Co-ops with us, learning more about international co-operation and the different sectors co-ops play a role in globally.
Co-op turned 181 in 2025! 74,000 member owners joined in with an opportunity from the Co-operative Heritage Trust to help shape their approach to ensuring as many people as possible can learn about our movement’s rich history.
We’re always keen to hear our members' feedback when it comes to our food. Our opportunity on a festive meal deal review had 62,000 members sign up, eager to share their views and to help ensure our products are the best they can be.
Helping your communities thrive with Co-op
Our network of 90 Member Activators works closely with our member owners, leading the charge in raising awareness of the value of membership, whether it be economic, social or ownership value.
In 2025, our Member Activators delivered over 300,000 interactions with our member owners and colleagues on the issues that matter most in our communities. Highlights from 2025 include:
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125 events in October, asking our members for feedback on our products and services and ideas on how we can work together locally.
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Six AGM local events, inviting members to watch and be part of the Co-op AGM at a local level.
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Over 400 events on our sustainability commitments, including Food Waste Action Week in March and Fairtrade Fortnight in September, with over 23,000 interactions with members.
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Promoting membership value through Community Celebrations with member owners and local groups in November.
Local Community Fund
Our Local Community Fund supports 2,500 community projects every year and in 2025, 1.7m member owners chose a local cause. Since 2016, that's 39,000 causes and help with vital services and projects for 9.5m people across the UK.
Hear from the causes you've supported about the difference they've made as a result in our blog.
Campaigning for change
Campaigning for public policy change on the issues that matter to our member owners has been core to our co-operative identity since the beginning.
Through our National Members’ Council and motions at our AGM, members have the deciding say on which key advocacy campaigns we focus on. In 2025, these were: Climate Justice; Hate Divides Communities, Co-operation Builds Them; and Social Mobility.
Climate Justice highlight
Our member owners have championed our support for Fairtrade from the start, so it’s no surprise that you’re passionate about helping the farmers and producers who are contributing the least to climate change but are the worst affected.
In the summer, thousands of people joined a Mass Lobby of Parliament. They came to speak to their MP, and tell them why protecting people, planet and nature is so important to them. We were delighted to see so many Co-op colleagues and members join in on the day to support the event and speak to their Member of Parliament.
Social Mobility highlight
Co-op Members called on us to campaign and advocate for change, to tackle the inequality we see today and challenge Government to address the root causes of these issues and enable social mobility throughout our society.
We believe that fairness is central to social mobility; wherever you start should not determine where you end up.
In November, we launched the Social Mobility Employer Toolkit to provide guidance for organisations to measure, understand and improve social mobility across their workforce. We also introduced our Employability Toolkit, which offers a free resource to help people who face barriers to work – such as young people, returners, refugees and those with convictions – to build confidence and develop job-ready skills.
The toolkits are free to access on our website and were developed with our Co-op Young Members' Group. They have also been rolled out across the Co-op Academies Trust.
Hate Divides Communities, Co-operation Builds Them highlight
For more than 100 years, co-operatives have been great advocates for, and builders of, peace. At a time when the world and our communities at home are becoming more divided places, never has co-operation been needed more.
In summer, our Board completed a review of our Sourcing Policy with members’ concerns on conflict and crisis in mind. As a result, Co-op no longer sources from countries where there are internationally recognised human rights abuses and violations.
Make your voice count in our 2026 AGM
Voting for our 2026 AGM will open on 13 April, and you'll have until 11 May at Midday to make your voice count. If you spent £100 or more with Co-op last year, help shape how we make a difference next through our motions, which have been inspired by members' views and ideas on the issues you care about most.
Our AGM is on 16 May at Co-op Live in Manchester, and there are also opportunities to get involved online or closer to home if you live near to one of our local events. Visit our website for the latest information.