The Mutual and Co-operative Sector Business Council

The Mutual and Co-operative Sector Business Council was established in 2025 by the biggest mutuals in the UK. Its aim is to work with related trade associations to provide coordination to the mutual and co-operative sector. And act as a conduit between the sector and the Government.

Today, there are more than 9,500 active mutuals in the UK. With more than 7,000 co-operatives and 68.8 million memberships across the mutual and co-operative sector.

The term ‘mutual and co-operative’, as used by the Council, includes:

  • co-operatives
  • employee-owned businesses
  • building societies
  • credit unions
  • financial mutuals
  • other mutual organisations.

About the council

The council will:

  • Work positively with Government to ensure that there is proper engagement on issues impacting the sector.

  • Develop a consensus view from the sector of which actions should be prioritised, to achieve the Government’s aim.

  • Act as a clearing house to ensure the right part of the sector should engage with the Government on specific initiatives.

  • Provide resources to support policy research and development on specific policy ideas that are supported by Government to help to achieve its aim to double the size of the sector.

  • Provide a platform for events and speeches to highlight the contribution of the sector.

  • Represent SMEs in the sector through trade association representatives on the Council.

The Mutuals and Co-operatives Business Council is represented by:

Co-operative Group: Owned by millions of customer members, Co-op is 1 of the world’s largest consumer co-operatives. It operates a network of supermarkets, funeral care services, and insurance and legal services businesses. And reinvests profits to benefit local communities.

Arla Foods UK: Arla Foods UK is the leading dairy co-operative. It produces a range of dairy products, including milk, cheese, butter, and yogurt. Owned by its farmers, the co-op focuses on sustainability, innovation, and delivering fresh, nutritious products across the UK.

Arup: Arup guide, plan and design the future of the built environment. They are a global consultancy with advisory and technical expertise across more than 150 disciplines. Since 1979, Arup has been owned by Trusts of which current and former employees of Arup Group companies are beneficiaries.

Nationwide Building Society: With 16 million members, Nationwide is the UK's largest building society. It recently acquired Virgin Money, expanding its offer into business banking.

John Lewis Partnership: The John Lewis Partnership is the UK’s largest employee-owned business. And is parent company to 2 retail brands — John Lewis and Waitrose. These are owned in Trust by around 70,000 Partners.

Royal London: The UK's largest mutual life, pensions and investment company. Managing group funds in excess of £150 billion.

Association of British Credit Union Limited: ABCUL is the main trade association for credit unions in Britain. Representing credit unions to governments, policymakers and the media. Providing a full range of information, training and development services, ABCUL helps its members grow as sustainable financial services providers.

Association of Financial Mutuals: The trade body that represents mutual and not-for-profit insurers, friendly societies and other financial mutuals across the UK. Between them, mutual and not-for-profit insurers manage 32 million savings, pensions, protection, and healthcare policies in the UK and Ireland. With annual premium income of £23 billion, and holding over £200 billion in assets.

Building Societies Association: The Building Societies Association is the voice for all 42 UK building societies. This includes both mutual-owned banks, and 7 of the largest credit unions that make up the National Credit Union Forum (NCUF). Together, these organisations serve around 26 million UK customers.

Co-operatives UK: The UK’s authority on co-operatives, Co-operatives UK empowers member-owned business to succeed. It provides expertise across governance, membership, HR and training - empowering co-operatives to be stronger, more resilient and sustainable. A co-operative in its own right, it is owned by around 1,000 businesses that are either co-operatives themselves, or support the values and principles of co-operation.

Employee Ownership Association: Representing a diverse community of over 800 employee-owned businesses. Including small, local businesses and multinational enterprises, as well as some of the sector’s best employee-owned specialist service providers. There’s over 2,250 employee-owned businesses in the UK. And they contribute £32-41 billion to the national economy each year, driving 1.7% - 2.1% of all economic activity.

Contact us

Secretariat and Senior Counsel to the Council is provided by Mutuo. Mutuo works to highlight the positive impact of mutual businesses, helping to create the conditions for mutuals to prosper.

If you have a query about the Council’s work, contact mark@mutuo.coop