Question: What is Mutuo?

Peter Hunt: It was set up in November 2001 as a project that brings together different wings of the mutual sector, that's building societies, friendly societies, Co-ops and mutual insurers.

The idea is to get those organisations together to promote a common message of success to government and opinion formers because previously they have all been acting independently.

As it happens, they had all been saying pretty much the same thing but we thought that it made sense to get everybody together and to use one voice to present our case.

Question: And how are you funded?

Peter Hunt: We're funded by subscriptions from the mutual sector with our principal support coming from the Co-operative Group.

We also do some consultancy work which we charge for but we are a not for profit organisation so everything that we make goes back into policy development work.

Question: Why is mutualism so important?

Peter Hunt: Well first of all its been around for a long time - about 150 years. And most people when asked about mutualism might think of building societies but really there is much more to it than that.

Most people don't really appreciate the broad sweep of organisations that are mutuals. One of the things we've been trying to do is to show that what was relevant 150 years ago is quite relevant in a modern context as well - particularly when you look at public service provision.

For example, the issue of foundation hospitals is very much in the news at the moment. We have been arguing for some time that the public as the consumers, the community and the employees should have a stake in decision making which is exactly what mutuals are all about - people who are affected by the business have a stake in how its run.

What the government is proposing is that the new foundation hospitals will be operating as mutuals themselves. This shows how the ideas of stakeholding and community involvement are actually quite modern and attractive today.

If you look at the rest of the mutual sector - particularly financial mutuals - they are a really important part of the economy. It is their existence and the fact that they offer very competitive business rates that makes banks less rapacious.

All of the surveys on financial products always show mutuals consistently dominating the top ten providers.

Question: On the issue of foundation hospitals, how much dialogue have you had with the government?

Peter Hunt: Well we produced a pamphlet in December last year called "Making healthcare mutual" which was a discussion on the basics of foundation hospitals and the entire NHS, and how it could be operated more in the community interest.

Since then, we've been working very closely with department of health officials to try and help them appreciate how mutuals operate and offer the expertise of established mutual businesses so the new foundation trusts get off on a strong footing.

Question: How much contact have you had with the Treasury on this issue?

Peter Hunt: At the beginning of the discussions the Treasury's concerns were to avoid off balance sheet borrowing for example.

These concerns, and others, have all been addressed by the Health and Social Care Bill that has been published and has been debated this week in parliament. We're happy that the Treasury's concerns about borrowing have been dealt with and this actually fits in very well with the chancellor's long standing personal interest which is to bring public services closer to local communities.

Question: Have you found that the public trusts mutuals?

Peter Hunt: Not only does the public trust mutuals, they trust them more than they trust traditional share holder owned companies. This is quite a bold assertion to make but the research that we have conducted was done jointly with the Judge Institute at Cambridge University and Birkbeck College at London University.

We asked them to look at the people who trusted their mutuals and to find out why. They tested against a whole range of factors what came out of it very strongly was that people trusted these organisations because of their mutual structure.

So because it wasn't owned by big city interests, because it was owned by and for individual members, they felt that it was their organisation and therefore it was more worthy of their trust.

This is quite an important lesson for the whole issue around governance and ownership.

Question: Where else would mutuals be of value in society?

Peter Hunt: When we first started looking at this we considered a whole range of potential applications for mutuality.

Its not just about public services. One of our greatest successes has been promoting mutual ownership in football. Supporters Direct, which has now been running for three years - I am proud to be one of its directors - has been very successful in establishing mutuals for football supporters in order that they can play a responsible part running in the clubs that they support.

In football, the management and players will come and go but the supporters will always be there but their role has been little more than as a cash cow for many years. Many clubs have been badly managed, yet a lot of the skills they need to run a successful community business are actually sitting in the stands.

So the idea is to build the supporters in as a partner in running the club and it is has been extremely successful. There are now more than 80 supporters' trusts around the country, covering most of the professional game, from QPR to Manchester United.

Just two weeks ago the government announced extra funding for extending the service to try and get football league clubs out of the financial mire they are in.

Question: So for clubs like Ipswich Town, who are facing severe financial difficulty, you would recommend that this is the way forward for them?

Peter Hunt: Absolutely. A really good example is Leicester City. The club went into administration and was close to going bust. It has been rescued by a local consortium which includes the largest supporters trust in the country with 3000 members.

Those members have committed themselves to raising enough money to buy a permanent stake in their club.

It doesn't mean that they will be taking over majority control at the club in the short term but they do now have a voice. At Lincoln City and Chesterfield supporters have achieved the ultimate success become the majority shareholders and effectively own the club.

Question: What are your main aims for the coming year?

Peter Hunt: We are today releasing our research report "Trust rewards" as I have said

We're going to continue this work with one or two more pieces of research. For example, a new report will seek to quantify the contribution that mutuals make to their communities in terms of employment, charitable donations and the well-being of the local economy and community.

After all, mutuals are big businesses and all of them have their headquarters in the regions. In Stoke for example the biggest employer after the council is Britannia Building Society and in Manchester it is the Co-op.

So these are very big regional employers and thus very important. What we want to do is try to bring to the attention of those who live in the capital that actually, these are very important players in the market place and their interests should be considered very carefully.

We also have more work to do on applying mutual structures in interesting new ways. We are conducting projects on pre-school childcare facilities and a whole range of different public service applications that will help to show people that mutuals are about more than they might think.