This projects builds on a previous report ‘Remodelling Capitalism: How Social Wealth Funds Could Transform Britain’. It proposes radical solutions to our current problems over public spending which are not likely to go away despite the proclaimed end of austerity. It argues that we must make a bigger, and more permanent change in the relationship of the state to the citizen to tackle the growing imbalance of wealth and income, and that we should value public sector assets at least as much as private sector ones. The project is focusing on two key areas: the need for more spending on social care and a long-term solution, for which a dedicated social care trust fund is proposed; and a series of urban land trusts, where public land is pooled and owned by a single authority, to ensure an adequate provision of social housing and improvements to local social infrastructure.
What does the project aim to achieve?
The projects aims to encourage debate on radical solutions to our current problems relating to declining public spending on vital services by disseminating our findings to key pressure groups, politicians, politicians and the media. It aims to build coalitions within the NGO sector to press for new approaches in two key areas: the need for long-term funding of social care, and the need for a big increase in social housing and improvements to social infrastructure. There is growing interest building such coalitions and we will collaborate and work collectively in such groups. There is also a real appetite among politicians and policy makers for new ideas in these areas, and the project will focus on lobbying key MPs, select committees, ministers and policy experts on the benefits of our approach.
Who might be interested in the project?
The project will be of interest to policy makers, politicians, journalists, academics and think-tanks who are considering how to fund our growing needs for public services, especially for older people; and those who are concerned about how to tackle our housing crisis.