EOA welcomes policy paper on widening ownership in UK economy

The EOA enthusiastically welcomes the IPPR’s policy paper Capital Gains – Broadening company ownership in the UK Economy launched today (Thursday 21 December).

The EOA’s main objective is to grow employee ownership in the UK because of the benefits that the business model offers in terms of the individual, the performance of the business and in sustaining businesses along with their ethos, values, employees, customers and supply chain in its locality long after those who set up the business are no longer around.

Both the IPPR report and the outcomes of the EOA-led Ownership Effect Inquiry which will be shared in 2018 show that employee ownership has a key role to play to widen capital ownership and address the disparity in wealth in the UK economy.

Deb Oxley, CEO of the Employee Ownership Association said:

“At this time of year when the huge disparity between those who have wealth and those who have not is felt most deeply we welcome this report from IPPR about broadening ownership in the UK economy.

“We are pleased that the Employee Ownership Trust is cited in the report which with its tax incentives we credit with helping to grow the employee owned sector by 30% in the past three years and which has seen businesses adopting the model alongside employee ownership values and culture seeing huge performance leaps within the first two years of transitioning.

“We totally agree that a broader mix of business models and ownership of capital is essential for the UK economy to be more resilient, for there to be better social mobility and to redress the increasing financial inequality caused by what increasingly becoming known as broken capitalism.

“It’s clear that for capitalism to endure, it must evolve – by becoming more inclusive, having wider impact and being more responsible.

“This debate matters hugely to the employee owned sector, as employee ownership is the antithesis of broken capitalism and we look forward to collaborating with the IPPR on this in 2018.”

The EOA has supported more than 350 businesses and organisations to either transition to employee ownership, grow and excel as employee owned business or support to employee owned businesses.