The impact of financial inclusion interventions on the economy of Calderdale – final technical report

This study quantifies the wider effects of financial inclusion interventions in Calderdale on both the local and regional economy

Proof of concept - Community Land Trusts

This ‘proof of concept’ report seeks to examine and quantify the progress made by Community Land Trusts (CLTs) now that there are a significant number of homes on the ground. Through the evidence of the case studies it will also look at the lessons learnt

Research into financial exclusion in Rochdale - final technical report

This report presents the findings and recommendations of research conducted on the extent and nature of financial exclusion in Rochdale

Delivering insurance to low-income households

Lack of insurance is recognised as a key indicator of financial exclusion in the UK, and the government is encouraging thinking on how it can be tackled. Community development finance institutions (CDFIs) have a UK-wide presence, and have experience of offering financial products to financially excluded, low-income consumers. This paper explores whether they could become effective suppliers of home contents insurance and life insurance to their current, and prospective, clients

Carpetbaggers and credit unions : a sociological study into the paradox of mutuality in the late twentieth century

This thesis explores the apparent paradox of mutuality in Britain at the turn of themillennium. It contrasts the relative decline of building societies via demutualisation,against the continual governmental support for and growth of credit unions. It beginsby constructing a cultural conceptualisation of mutuality, which comprises of fourinterrelated elements: trust, reciprocity/habit, longevity, and caution. These areformalised in an organisational model of cooperation, which seeks to explain howmutuals function in reality. Both these models are employed to assess the validity ofcompeting explanations of contemporary mutuality. First, a functionalist interpretation,which assumes that demutualisation is an inevitable result of growth, is examined.Second, a neo-Marxist analysis, which believes resource appropriation by buildingsociety management, was the motivation for change. However, neither theory wassubstantiated by the evidence because they could not fully explain why demutualisationdid not occur earlier or why new mutuals, namely credit unions, were being established.Consequently a third interpretation synthesising the Neo-Marxist thesis with a culturalpost-modern glocal turn was developed. Accordingly, demutualisation occurredbecause building societies became disembedded from society. First, the culmination ofpaternalism produced a transformation in the trust relationship between members andmanagement. Second, in the political and economic spheres, Thatcherism andglobalisation marginalised any alternative perspectives to the neo-liberal narrative,through the commodification of the personal; discrediting and abasement of the mutual;and the imposition of a crypto-Utopian discourse. Alongside this assault on mutuality acounter-culture of opposition to globalisation, glocalism, created spaces for newmutuals, such as credit unions. Many of these entities deliberately prioritised social overeconomic objectives and based their attachment on a small locality. By examiningmutuals holistically it is hoped that this thesis contributes to a sociologicalunderstanding of how cooperative organisations are affected by the state andhypercapitalism