Picture of Leslie Huckfield

Dr Leslie Huckfield

Associate Lecturer and Honorary Associate

Economics

leslie.huckfield@open.ac.uk

Biography

Background Summary 

Leslie Huckfield is an Associate Lecturer and Honorary Research Associate at the Open University and a Visiting Fellow and researcher at Glasgow Caledonian University, supervising doctoral students.

His academic qualifications include an Oxford MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, an MSc with Distinction in Urban and Regional Planning from Heriot Watt University and a PhD from Glasgow Caledonian University.

He was a Member of the House of Commons from 1967 till 1983 and a Member of the European Parliament from 1984 till 1989, where he was a member of the Socialists and Democrats Group and Vice Chair of the Parliament’s Transport Committee. 

He was Under Secretary of State (a Government Minister) in the Department of Industry from 1976 till 1979 and a member of the Labour Party National Executive Committee from 1978 till 1982. In 1980 he was chair of the Labour NEC Working Group on Workers’ Cooperatives which made recommendations for Labour’s 1983 General Election Manifesto.

After representing Nuneaton in the House of Commons from 1967 till 1983, before election as a Merseyside MEP to the European Parliament in 1984, he ran the Capital Transport Campaign (Campaign to Protect and Improve Transport in London), as one of the Ken Livingstone's GLC funded outreach organisations. Apart from contributions from Doreen Massey and Hillary Wainwright, few have sought to recall the alternative local social economy which the GLC and later the Greater London Enterprise Board worked to create.

Alongside his academic qualifications, Leslie Huckfield has a range of UK, European and international policy development and implementation experience.  

He is concerned that Labour’s experience of doubling the size of the cooperative sector has been overlooked, and that cooperatives and industrial democracy should be restored to a more progressive political agenda. 

Community Development

In 1973 he was joint leader and co architect of a workers’ cooperative after the occupation of the Triumph motorcycle works at Meriden near Coventry, where many of his constituents worked. Arising from the 1976 Industrial Common Ownership Act and 1978 Cooperative Development Agency Act, the Labour Government, in which he was a Minister, doubled cooperative numbers. In 1981 he assisted the Transport and General Workers’ Union Taunton Shirt Cooperative, after closure of the Viyella factory. From 1980 till 1993 he was a member of the Political Committee of London Cooperative Society.

Moving to Scotland in 2004, in 2006 he wrote a Community Benefit Programme for Raploch Urban Development Corporation. In 2008 he set up the Plean Community Development Trust in Stirling’s Eastern Villages. In 2011 and 2012 he prepared funding for Start Up Stirling to develop Stirling’s Food Bank. In 2015 and 2016 he delivered a series of 11 EU Funding Masterclass across Scotland, attended by 500 representatives from Scotland’s social enterprises, community organisations and higher education representatives.

He was a significant contributor to the Labour Party “Alternative Models of Ownership” Report, commissioned in 2017 by John McDonnell MP and Rebecca Long Bailey MP and regarded as major milestone to reshape Labour's agenda. From 2017 till 2019 he was a member of John McDonnell’s Implementation Group as Shadow Chancellor, for interpreting Labour Party policy to double the cooperative sector.

From 2009 till 2020 he was a director and active member of the Social Entrepreneurs’ Network Scotland. From 2019 till 2022 he was a director of the Sheffield Cooperative Development Group. He is also an active member of the Edinburgh Unite Not for Profit Branch.

In March 2017 he delivered a presentation on his work to the Labour Resource Action Network (LRAN) at Howard University, Washington DC and delivered seminars at University of Montreal in Quebec (UQAM) CRISES Conferences in 2017 and 2021.

In 2020 he co wrote the Response to Scottish Government Consultation from SENSCOT, Social Firms Scotland and Scottish Community Alliance on the "Replacement of European Structural Funds in Scotland Post EU Exit". Though following Brexit Scotland can no longer access EU funds, he still follows latest programme developments.

His book “How Blair Killed the Coops,” published by Manchester University Press in November 2021, describes how under New Labour there was a major political shift from cooperative, mutual and democratically accountable structures in local communities towards individually controlled social enterprises as Community Interest Companies.

European Funding, including Baltics and Eastern Europe 

Having moved to Scotland in 2004, he worked on EU funded projects in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, including a Report for the British Embassy in Riga, Latvia and British Council in Vilnius, Lithuania on pre EU accession funding on, esepcially for vocational training.

On behalf of the Ministry of Finance of the Lithuanian Government and BDO Lithuania, from January till March 2004 he held extensive discussions and visited appropriate EU Commission Directorates in Brussels to produce a report for upgrading of the Mazeikia Power Station under the EU’s Cohesion Fund to use more oil from a nearby oil refinery - a €50mn project involving €350mn public loan guarantees. In 2004 and 2005 he developed ESF and ERDF Projects for the Polish Chamber of Commerce in Poznan, the Municipality of Stalowa Wola, Podkarpackie Voivodship and the Institute of Theology, Sandomierz, part of the University of Lublin, Poland for EU funded infrastructure to attract more companies and jobs.

European Parliament Former Members' Association

He retains access to EU Council of Ministers, Commission and Parliament facilities through his current active membership of the European Parliament Former Members' Association.

Abbreviated Summary of Research, Presentations and Publications 

  • SCSJ COVID, Social Enterprise and Communities. Paper and presentation to Scottish Centre for Social Justice Launch Conference, Queen Margaret University, Friday 01 October 2021 

  • "The financialization of community development: the role of social finance”  Community Development Journal, Volume 56, Issue 1, January 2021, Pages 100–11

  • “The Mythology of the Social Impact Bond: A Critical Assessment from a Concerned Observer” Historische Sozialforschung (Historical Social Research) Journal. Published May 2020.

  • Social Finance and Local Government Services (Social Investment and Social Impact Bonds). Research project for trade union UNISON, completed December 2019

  • “Policy for Cooperatives”. Contribution to Shadow Chancellor’s Implementation Group on doubling UK cooperative sector. Report submitted June 2019

  • “How can we Stop Privatisation of Public Services?” Chapter in “Rethinking Britain: Policy Ideas for the Many”, Policy Press, Bristol. Published March 2019  

  • “Le néolibéralisme et la marchandisation de l’économie sociale au Royaume-Uni: les conséquences pour l’innovation sociale” Chapter in “Trajectoires d'Innovation” Presses de l'Université du Québec, March 2019

  • “Social Innovation as a Trigger for Transformations: The Role of Research”. Contribution and Expert Submission. Edited: Frank Moulaert, Abid Mehmood, Diana MacCallum, and Bernhard Leubolt. EU Commission Directorate General for Research and Innovation, September 2017

  • “Austerity, Privatisation, Private Monday and Social Impact Bonds”. Labour Research and Action Network Conference, Presentation at Howard University, Washington DC, Friday 09 June 2017

  • “Alternative Models of Ownership. Contributor to Report to Shadow Chancellor and Shadow Secretary of State for BEIS, published by Labour Party, May 2017

  • “Return to the True Origins of the Third Sector Makes Redundant the Concept of “social Innovation” Presentation to CRISES International Conference, Université Du Québec À Montréal (UQAM) Thursday April 06 2017
  • Social Impact Bonds” – the Case for a Pause”. Presentation at University of Hamburg, Thursday 23 March 2017

  • “Social Enterprise Came before New Labour: Neglect of UK Antecedents from the 1970s onwards has Miscast the Role of Social Enterprise.” Paper to Voluntary Action History Soc Conf, Liverpool, July 2016