Onward Bulletin 24/08/2021
The latest research, events and news straight to your inbox every Tuesday.
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
IN THE NEWS
The i News covered the findings of our recent report, Greening the Giants, as referenced in commenting on the millions of jobs that could be created in the transition to net zero.
The findings from a focus group, commissioned by Onward in Teesside, on the behavioural challenges presented by the net zero transition were cited in the Business Secretary’s interview in The Telegraph.
Onward Director Will Tanner wrote for The Sunday Telegraph on tackling the hard politics of net zero.
Will Holloway, Onward’s Deputy Director, was quoted in FarmingUK on the importance of levelling up rural areas.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Ahead of Parliament returning in September, we are thrilled to host Chris Stark, Chief Executive of the Climate Change Committee, for a speech and accompanying Q&A on the transition to net zero. Register here.
Later next month, we are delighted to be hosting 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 and Hubert Keller, Co-Senior Partner of Lombard Odier Group to discuss Private Capital for Public Good. Register here to join.
This article was first published in ConservativeHome, click here to read the full edition.
In the coming weeks, with the publication of the Levelling Up white paper, the Government’s agenda to deliver on its biggest domestic policy priority will take shape. It is an ambitious project, but this is necessary in order to tackle complex, ingrained inequality. As there is no one single problem, uniformly applied, there can be no quick fix.
Yet in the face of such a far-reaching programme, it is important to remember that the devil often lies in the detail. Rural communities, like the rest of the UK, face hurdles to opportunity and success. But the type of obstacles faced differs wildly between places.
The demographic composition of rural areas differs from the other areas of the UK, being both proportionally older than their urban counterparts and less densely populated. Running a centralised service becomes significantly more costly and difficult when it needs to adjust to the low density and high degree of diversity of context and need across these areas.
Similarly, large infrastructure projects, while undoubtedly important, will not make a vast difference in the day-to-day lives of rural communities whose local bus service remains unfunded. Rural communities often lack intra- and inter-area connectivity. In 2017-18, out of the 88 local transport authorities, 56 had either reduced or spent nothing on supported bus services.
It is not only physical infrastructure that is lacking. The spread of gigabit technology has been impressive - from 6 to almost 60 per cent coverage - but it has not been uniform. With 57 per cent of rural communities not enjoying download speeds of above 10 Mbps - a right according to Ofcom.
This lack of connectivity is destructive. Without the required infrastructure to pursue further training, opportunity is limited leaving families and individuals with little choice but to relocate, leaving behind smaller and older communities. It is a vicious cycle but not an inevitable one.
For example, community bus services. Designed to cater to the specific needs of a community, such services have helped to fend off the isolation experienced by individuals in hard to reach places while managing to avoid the prohibitive costs of wider-reaching services.
Supporting rural communities to get the most out of the levelling up agenda means empowering and financing those who are already taking responsibility for their areas. The application of a one-size fits all policy developed with an urban setting in mind is inappropriate and will ultimately be unsustainable. Instead, rural communities need and deserve innovative, tailored solutions.
Policy Bites
The Government welcomed the publication of the Bacon Report encouraging self-build and custom housing, with the potential to support the building of up to 30 to 40,000 homes and thousands of jobs. Link.
The Government has announced that social housing providers will be able to bid for £3.8 billion of financial support to decarbonise homes and make them more energy efficient. Link.
The Prime Minister received a letter from the Council for Science and Technology on how to harness technology to make the NHS more efficient and sustainable. Link.
Quick Links
Electric Vehicles - An Opportunity Worth Seizing: Mark Jenkinson MP writes in ConservativeHome about the opportunities and challenges presented by EVs. Link.
A Green Future Needs A Green Curriculum: Meryl Batchelder writes in the Guardian about the need to teach children how to be green. Link.
The young are the future: The Economist comments on the demographic surge in young adults and what this could mean for the politics and the country as a whole. Link.
Thank you for reading
Thank you for taking the time to read this far.
If you liked the newsletter, please feel free to share with a friend or colleague.
Every other Friday, we also send out a Levelling Up Newsletter with pieces from MPs on the Levelling Up Taskforce. Sign up here.
If you found this in Spam, please drag it into your main inbox to train the algorithm.
If you like Onward’s work, consider donating as little as £2 a month.