From Co-op Council to national roll-out: why Steve Reed’s Big Idea risks failing twice

When Steve Reed was leader of Lambeth Council back in 2010, he sold us a bold vision: the Co-operative Council. It promised residents more control, more say, and more power over the services they used. Lambeth, he claimed, would be at the cutting edge of a democratic revolution.

Fifteen years later, the co-op model is remembered less as a triumph and more as a cautionary tale. Far from empowering residents, it often excluded them. Far from avoiding top-down politics, it entrenched them. And far from replacing conflict with cooperation, it left Lambeth battling its own citizens in court.

Now Reed is dusting off the same rhetoric, this time with a national roll-out. He wants us to believe that communities across the country will suddenly be able to seize control of their high streets, take over empty shops, and decide how regeneration money is spent.

But if he couldn’t make it work in Brixton, Streatham or West Norwood, why should anyone believe he can deliver it nationwide?

Back in 2010, the co-op council was sold as a radical third way between Cameron’s “Big Society” and Barnet’s cuts-driven “easyCouncil.” Reed’s speeches talked of “co-production,” “shared responsibility,” and “citizens in control.”

The reality was much messier. Lambeth’s flagship Citizen’s Commission contained no ordinary citizens. Residents were offered gimmicks like council tax discounts for sweeping their own streets. This never happened of course. Big regeneration schemes went ahead regardless of objections.

On the ground, mistrust grew. Examples include:

Cressingham Gardens – tenants were told demolition was for their benefit, even after a resident ballot rejected it.

Central Hill residents spent years fighting an unwanted regeneration plan, eventually dragging Lambeth through the courts.

Brockwell Live concerts were waved through with scant scrutiny, leaving local communities to deal with the fallout.

Even the borough’s Low Traffic Neighbourhoods collapsed after legal challenges exposed the Council’s poor consultation.

Fast forward to today and Reed is pitching the same dream to the whole country. Communities, he says, will get new powers to buy up derelict pubs, shut down problem shops, and shape their neighbourhoods.

But the warning signs are obvious. Lambeth never managed to create genuine structures for citizen power. Decisions were tightly controlled by party whips, scrutiny was weak, and consultation often felt like a box-ticking exercise.

Scaling that model up nationally risks creating a façade of democracy – the appearance of power for communities, without the substance.

Reed is not just a Cabinet minister. He is also the MP for Streatham and Croydon North. That matters. His reputation as a bold reformer was built on Lambeth’s failed experiment. He now wants to use the same playbook to rescue a government fast running out of ideas.

But Brixton residents know the truth. They saw promises of empowerment fade into empty slogans. They saw consultation turn into conflict. They saw their own estates lined up for demolition despite local opposition. And they saw their own council taken to court again and again.

If this is the model for “the largest transfer of power from Westminster in history,” then we are heading straight for disappointment – only this time on a national scale.

The collapse of the co-op council wasn’t an accident. It failed because the rhetoric never matched the reality, because decisions were stitched up behind closed doors, and because ordinary people were treated as afterthoughts.

Now Reed is asking the country to trust him again. But communities should remember what happened in Lambeth before buying into the hype.

For Keir Starmer, the stakes are even higher. Reed has been handed this policy brief as both a lifeline and a shield. If it somehow works, Starmer can claim he has delivered on his promise of change. But if it fails – as it did in Lambeth – Reed will be the one left holding the blame.

It’s a familiar trick: set up a loyal lieutenant to front the grand experiment, let them take the flak when it collapses, and move on. The problem is that this time the consequences are national.

History doesn’t just rhyme – it repeats. And unless lessons are learned from Lambeth’s collapse, Coop Council Mk II may implode just as spectacularly.

Reed used the Co-op Council as his launchpad, not as a lasting solution. It gave him the national spotlight he craved, even as it crumbled in Lambeth.

Now, having climbed the greasy pole to Cabinet rank, he’s dusting off the same failed experiment and selling it as fresh thinking. The difference is that this time it’s not just Brixton on the line – it’s the whole country being asked to bankroll Steve Reed’s personal ambition.