Onward Bulletin 14/09/2021
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Hello and welcome to Onward’s weekly summary of research, events and opinion. We hope you enjoy it. If you do, tell your friends or donate to support our work.
Onward activity
Over the weekend …
On Saturday, we published our latest Social Fabric report, Turnaround.
· The report evaluated the last six decades of regeneration policy and argues efforts to level up deprived communities are unlikely to be successful without devolution of power to local neighbourhoods. Watch Will Tanner discuss the findings on Newsnight here.
On Sunday, we also published new polling on attitudes towards Scottish Independence, conducted by Stack Data Strategy.
· It found that the share of voters wanting a referendum “this year” or “next year” is now just 27% – down from 35% in February, the Sunday Telegraph and the Sun covered the findings.
Last week we published an additional two pieces of research:
· Levelling Up the South West, analysed the relative performance of the economy of the South West on indicators such as earnings and skills. Selaine Saxby MP wrote in support of the findings in ConservativeHome, the note was also covered in BusinessLive.
· How to Scale Social Investment, written by Gareth Davies MP, which discussed the ways in which UK social investment growth can be accelerated. Gareth wrote in The Times Red Box and it was also covered by Civil Society and PioneersPost.
EVENT TOMORROW: We are very excited to be joined by a brilliant panel to discuss Private Capital for Public Good: How to harness institutional finance for global and domestic decarbonisation. Speakers include:
· Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy,
· Dr Rhian-Mari Thomas OBE, Chief Executive of Green Finance Institute
· Hubert Keller, Senior Managing Partner of Lombard Odier Group to discuss.
Register here to join.
Governments of all political shapes and stripes have tried to help places that lag well behind the most prosperous areas. Left behind places can be disenfranchised politically and suffer a fraying social fabric. Communities in these places need and deserve government help to turnaround their fortunes.
But how can and should the Government achieve this? After 60 years of programmes and initiatives, there is still little agreement as to what a successful regeneration policy looks like. In fact, the history of regeneration policy in the UK is notable for its unevenness. Worse, there has been little attention paid in the past to properly evaluating programmes or establishing measures of success.
Onward’s most recent report, Turnaround, evaluated the last six decades of regeneration policy in the UK alongside examples from abroad. We found that left behind places face something of a Catch-22. The hallmarks of deprivation, like poor housing and a lack of educational or employment opportunity, mean fewer people are keen to move to and invest in these areas. Yet, due to their lack of investment or social capital, the internal capacity of these communities to make positive changes is often more limited.
Breaking this cycle requires long term, thought through and consistent action. In part, that is why it is essential to allow local communities to direct regeneration in their own area - taking an active role in the change. Communities have a vested interest, knowledge of their place and a sense of identity that they can use to direct change better than Whitehall officials or distant politicians. Empowering them should be a central part of any regeneration policy.
To this end, we set out four main recommendations for policymakers. First, the creation of ‘Community Deals’: programmes of regeneration that are led by local groups and funded for the long term by an endowment from central government funding - agreed with and coordinated by communities at a neighbourhood level.
Second, we suggest an emphasis on capacity building in order to break the cycle that many left behind places face. Some Levelling Up funding should be ring-fenced by the Government. This should be used to create a network of community organisations focused on knowledge sharing and to help those communities unable to take advantage of national funding to improve their operational capability.
Third, to avoid history repeating itself, Ministers should set out a comprehensive list of measures of community strength. The resulting dataset would allow analysis and evaluation of the successes and obstacles of different regeneration policies in different parts of the UK. Finally, building on the recommendation above, a detailed methodology of regeneration needs to be developed. This could be developed within a new institution that would pursue and promote evidence-based practice.
Read the full report here.
Policy Bites
· The Government has taken steps to create a long term solution to the HGV driver shortage. New legislation will create a more streamlined testing process and open up 50,000 more tests available. Link.
· A £265 million boost to the Government’s renewable energy scheme has been announced which will encourage investment in low-carbon electricity, as part of the UK’s commitment to net zero. Link.
· Ofsted and HM Inspectorate of Prisons have joined up to launch a review of education within prisons, starting with a renewed focus on reading skills. Link.
Quick Links
· Achieving energy security: Tony Lodge writes in the Telegraph that energy policy post-Brexit must focus on energy security and lowering energy bills. Link.
· Devolution to metro mayors: Andy Street writes in ConservativeHome about how metro mayors are using their devolved powers to create locally appropriate and reliable public transport for local people. . Link.
· Multi-academy trusts need inspection too: Jonathan Gullis MP writes in Times Red Box, calling for Ofsted to have greater oversight of Multi-Academy Trusts, following our Lost Learningreport. Link.
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