Ed Mayo: ‘For-profit is not dog eats dog’

Published by Max Salsbury for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Finance

Ed Mayo has said that embracing for-profit enterprises in the social housing sector is not a “dog eats dog” situation.

Speaking at the CIH conference in Manchester, the Secretary General at Co-operatives UK asked: “Who here owns a dog? Have you ever seen your dog eat another dog? My pet lurcher tries, and fails, to eat squirrels, but I’m yet to see him try to eat another dog.”

Mayo claimed that there are many myths surrounding the way business and the economy works.

He continued: “If you think that the for-profit sector is dog eats dog, then you should leave now. Equally, if you are a not for-profit organisation, and think yourself a philanthropic charity, then you should also leave. You should be at a charity conference, not a housing conference.”

Mayo noted that there are around 250 co-op models in the UK, which involve about 5000 enterprises. He pointed out that these figures place the country way behind the likes of Sweden and US in terms of co-ops.

He commented that things are tough and that the public sector needs to embrace new challenges.

However, during the seminar a tweet appeared on the huge screen behind Mayo, which read: “Surely social housing has its roots in paternalistic philanthropy, not co-operatives?”