The central challenge for a prospective Labour government is how to pursue a radical social agenda within limited budgets. A major new IPPR report, The Condition of Britain: Strategies for social renewal, published last month, argues that the centre-left must not allow fiscal realism to constrain our ambitions for society. Rather, our new circumstances provide the impetus to seek new ways of addressing social needs. We argue for a strategy that mobilises the talents and energies of citizens to address their problems together, rather than placing excessive faith in central state power, top-down initiatives and cash benefits.
In compiling the report, we met people from across the country who are working hard to take care of their families and improve their neighbourhoods, towns and cities. We did not hear that Britain is ‘broken’ but we did find that the social fabric is under real pressure, in a society scarred by the economic crisis and slow recovery. Yet the people we met were not, on the whole, looking to government to fix every problem. Instead, they sought the power and resources to take charge of their own destiny.
This desire for control over our own lives speaks to an active, democratic equality that cannot be handed down from above, but which must be seized by citizens. It suggests a concern for social as well as material equality, where we can all live together with dignity and respect. It requires us to attend as much to the process of achieving greater equality as to any particular measure of inequalities in income or wealth.
Before the crash, the Conservatives seemed to grasp some of this argument with their calls for a ‘big society’, where citizens would take responsibility for solving urgent social problems. The critique of New Labour’s ‘bureaucratic state’ had merit but insisting on a ‘rolling back’ of the state was a fatal error, turning the relationship between the state and civil society into a zero-sum game rather than a partnership. It meant there was no plausible strategy for bringing about the ‘big society’, so in government it has been reduced to open data, ‘nudge’, and payment-by-results contracting that has benefitted private providers of public services at the expense of the ‘little platoons’ of charities and community organisations.
Now the task for the centre-left is to marry the critique of the ‘bureaucratic state’ with a strategy for mobilising people and places in pursuit of ‘active equality’. This is not about shrinking the state but about using central state power more judiciously, by devolving power to people and places, fostering contribution, and working with others to strengthen shared institutions.
Nowhere is this more important than in care – both for young children and older people, where The Condition of Britain proposes major new investments. The aim is to adapt the welfare state to profound changes in family life and better prepare Britain for an ageing society, but also to unlock people’s own capacities to help themselves and others. Our proposals (see box) are matched with tough choices about how to pay for new investments.
We call for affordable, good-quality childcare to be available full time and year-round for preschool children from the age of one, delivered by children’s centres and nurseries rooted in neighbourhood life. These local, independent institutions enable parents to come together and support each other, as well as to access vital childcare services. The bulk of additional investment should come from restricting pension tax relief, and scrapping the marriage tax breaks that the coalition plans to introduce next year.
We also argue that child benefit should be frozen for school-age children and the savings invested in more affordable childcare places. This is a tough move when families are still facing a squeeze on their living standards, although no one would lose out in cash terms. But it is consistent with a strategy that prioritises investment in universal services over higher benefits for all families, and that seeks to create the conditions in which families can overcome poverty through work rather than relying on benefits. Politically, this move would signal an ambitious reform agenda for families but one rooted in today’s fiscal realities.
For older people, we want to see an entitlement to means-tested support for those with ‘moderate’ care needs to help them maintain their independence. And we call for new investment in independent ‘neighbourhood networks’ that bring older people together to find friendship and mutual support, and overcome isolation and loneliness. This would help ease the pressure on formal care services while drawing on the time and considerable talents of Britain’s older people.
We propose paying for this extra support by removing winter fuel payments from better-off pensioners, and restricting them to those in receipt of pension credit. This would see the ending of a universal pensioner benefit, albeit one only introduced in 1998 and which is of marginal value to many pensioner households. We argue that these resources would be better spent on support that enables older people to remain independent and sustain relationships.
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Kayte Lawton leads the Condition of Britain programme at IPPR
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Families – raising children and nurturing relationships
A month off for fathers when their child is born, paid at least the minimum wage, plus paid time off for fathers to attend antenatal appointments
A guaranteed full-time, year-round affordable childcare place for all one-to-four-year-olds, including a free 15-hour entitlement for all two-to-four-year-olds
All staff working with two-year-olds to hold at least a level 3 child development qualification, and 30 per cent to hold an early years degree
Child benefit to rise with prices for under-fives but frozen for older children
A separate work allowance for second earners in universal credit
A lifetime entitlement to one course of counselling for couples for all adults and an end to marriage notice fees
Young people – enabling secure transitions into adulthood
A youth allowance for 18-21-year-olds in education or looking for work, rather than access to out-of-work benefits
A youth guarantee for 18-21-year-olds, with access to education, training or help to find work, and compulsory work experience after six months
Half of young people aged 16 or 17 taking part in National Citizen Service by 2020
Young adults brought under the remit of youth offending teams, rather than adult probation services
Working life – promoting work and rewarding contribution
An independent national insurance fund to restore the link between contributions and entitlements
A higher rate of jobseeker’s allowance and access to support for mortgage interest for those who have paid into the system
A work programme focused on the long-term unemployed and people recovering from a health condition
A locally led ‘New Start’ supported employment programme for people with a long-term health condition or disability
Sick pay recovery for small firms hiring people from employment and support allowance, plus greater back-to-work engagement during sickness absence
An independent Affordable Credit Trust to endow local affordable lenders as alternatives to high-cost payday lenders
Housing – mobilising local leadership to build more homes
New powers for towns and cities to bring forward land for development
Financial incentives for councils to reduce housing benefit spending by meeting affordable housing needs more efficiently
New powers for councils to set the level of housing benefit in the private rented sector
Control over housing capital budgets for combined authorities who want to shift from ‘benefits to bricks’
In time, enabling combined authorities to take control of all housing spending in their area, with responsibility for meeting affordable housing needs
Crime and exclusion – putting people and places in control
An entitlement to ‘restorative justice’ to give a voice to victims of crime and antisocial behaviour
Neighbourhood justice panels in every area to mobilise local volunteers to help tackle low-level crime and antisocial behaviour
A new locally led ‘Troubled Lives’ programme to address the root causes of deep social exclusion
Older people – living well together in an ageing society
A right to adjustments in working arrangements for people providing a significant amount of unpaid care
An entitlement to means-tested support for older people with ‘moderate’ care needs
An independent review to consider how the national insurance system could protect people from high care costs in old age
Backing for older people who want to establish a ‘neighbourhood network’ in their local area to help tackle loneliness and isolation