[7] The modern organisation began to take shape when Dame Pauline Green became the first female chief executive of the Co-operative Union on New Year's Day 2000.

[10] Green served on the commission, chaired by John Monks,[11] and then took the job of coordinating the union's response to the final report.

[14] The union began providing administration services for the United Kingdom Co-operative Council (UKCC) and the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM) in 2000.

[16] The two groups' members voted to merge in the Autumn of 2001, with ICOM moving its staff and membership to the Manchester offices of the union when the merger was formalised[17] in December 2001.

"[23] In July 2009, it was announced that Ed Mayo would become Secretary General of Co-operatives UK, resigning as Chief Executive of Consumer Focus to take up the post.

[31] Ultimately, this led to the splitting of the worker and consumer sectors of the UK Movement, prompted by the CWS' rejection of the idea of profit-sharing with its employees in 1880.

[8] A plaque was erected outside the building dedicating the building to Holyoake's memory, reading: Holyoake House is also home to the Co-operative College (although between 1940 and 2001, the College moved to Stanford Hall, near Loughborough),[8] the Association of British Credit Unions Limited (ABCUL)[36] and The Co-operative News.

[37] The building was extended in the 1930s,[8] and the Training Centre on the top floor was destroyed by an incendiary bomb in the Manchester Blitz of 1940.

[41] During the First World War, the movement began to feel hostility from the government: requests to set up a system of rationing to prevent private traders from hoarding goods and selling them at inflated prices were initially ignored and then, when sugar rationing was finally introduced, the union was refused a seat on the commission set up to control it although co-operatives were the largest wholesalers and retailers of sugar in the UK.

A motion was put forward to the 1917 Congress to abandon the principle of political neutrality and when it was passed The National Co-operative Representation Committee was formed.

[46] Through the end of the 1960s and the start of the 1970s the working environment of the Union began to change: Britain joined the European Economic Community (EEC) and so closer ties with the ICA were necessary.

[47] On 10 August 1974 it also suffered a serious setback when its newly appointed General Secretary Clarence Hilditch died in office.

[53] Its board has 18 members, with places divided through the membership as follows: The current Chair is Nick Matthews of Heart of England Co-operative Society.