On a recent long car journey, my husband and I were passing the time with the sort of idle political questions which fill long hours – who’s the best ever Labour leader (easy); who’ll be the next Tory leader (more tricky!). Finally I posed the question – ‘if you had to choose between redistributing wealth or redistributing power, which would you choose?’ This failed as a time-passer as we both chose redistributing power immediately.

This week, the IPPR published its Condition of Britain report – a comprehensive and well-researched set of recommendations for a future government. A key theme is the emphasis on distribution of power and the significance of social relations as well as economic relations – what the report calls ‘an active equality’. The report argues that this is particularly salient for a government that will be faced with the challenge of governing in a time of austerity. I would have argued that redistributing power should have had more priority even when we were also making decisions about where to increase public funding rather than where to cut it.

For example, in the chapter I wrote for Progress’ Purple Book with Jenny Chapman on crime, victims and communities, we argued that redistributing power to local communities and victims would improve the criminal justice system. ‘Crime intimidates victims and the wider community and makes people feel powerless. Giving people information and influence over how crime is tacked acts to redress this power imbalance and makes detection and prosecution more likely.’

These themes are picked up in the Condition of Britain report and I very much welcome the proposals in the crime and justice section.

The first proposal is that victims should have an entitlement to restorative justice. Too often victims feel shut out of the criminal justice system – disempowered both by the crime or antisocial behaviour they have suffered and then by the system which is supposed to be helping them. Restorative justice gives the opportunity for victims to directly explain the impact of the crime on them and, where appropriate, for the offender to try to do something to make amends. As the report points out, there is now plenty of evidence that this approach is supported by victims and also helps to cut reoffending. In the Purple Book, we called for a victims’ law and this could and should be an important element of the work now being taken forward by Keir Starmer in designing a victims’ law.

We also argued that ‘crime has an impact beyond the victim and their family. In some communities, people feel that crime and antisocial behaviour has made them all victims even when they are not directly affected.’ It is important to find ways to strengthen the capacity of neighbourhoods to play a role in the criminal justice system. We argued for an extension of the Labour government’s Community Crime Fighter programme, which trained nearly 4000 people to work with and challenge local criminal justice agencies. The IPPR report proposes that local people should be involved with neighbourhood justice panels providing local restorative justice and able to recommend local solutions to antisocial behaviour and disputes.

Finally the report recognises that there has been insufficient progress in tackling the deep-seated and interrelated problems including drug and alcohol abuse, mental health problems and homelessness that cause some individuals to become criminals. The current Troubled Families programme led by Louise Casey who worked on the Respect Programme for our government is achieving success with families facing a range of problems. This approach of personal focus and challenge drawing on the expertise of the voluntary sector could work for individuals who currently fail to qualify for family support.

The Condition of Britain report is an important contribution to the development of our programme for government. We need to think differently in a time of austerity, but this should not be seen as a ‘second best’ programme to spending much more public money. Sharing and redistributing power should always be a key element of progressive politics – in good as well as challenging economic times.

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Jacqui Smith is a former home secretary, writes the Monday Politics column for Progress, and tweets @smithjj62