Tag: Building Stronger Communities

UK Government announces Action Plan to build stronger communities

The government has launched a ‘rallying call for action, setting out the first steps towards a more connected, cohesive and resilient United Kingdom’

PROTECTING WHAT MATTERS

Millions of families, friends and neighbours will feel a stronger sense of community, unity and national pride thanks to renewed efforts to stamp out extremism, hate and division announced yesterday.

Today the government is launching a rallying call for action, setting out the first steps towards a more connected, cohesive and resilient United Kingdom – a place where neighbour continues to look out for neighbour and people come together with a shared sense of values, pride, and belonging.  

The action plan follows decades of rapid change – technological advancements, demographic change, local industries collapsing, the increasing cost of living and the decline of vital public services. This has caused a strain on social cohesion. Bad actors, including from abroad, have sought to stoke community tensions and promote toxic division and extremist ideology in our communities. 

Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Steve Reed told the House of Commons:  ”Today, through the publication of Protecting What Matters, we set out the first steps towards a more confident, cohesive, and resilient United Kingdom.

“This plan is what patriotism means to this government. We choose to celebrate our national successes and historic achievements, we choose to come together in the best of times and the worst of times, and we choose to take on those who try to divide us.”

This publication – Protecting What Matters – puts the emphasis on healing divided communities, setting out clear expectations around what it means to live together and integrate into society, tackling those trying to subvert our shared values and ultimately promoting pride, unity and tolerance.   

This comes as the latest statistics show that hate crime is rising, with Jewish people disproportionately more targeted by hate crime than any other group.  

To tackle antisemitism head on, the government is investing at record levels to scale up security at synagogues and schools, clamping down on antisemitic extremism, and rolling out training on antisemitism in the workplace.  

Religious hate crimes targeted at Muslims are also at record levels, with almost half of these crimes targeted towards the Muslim community and many living in fear that they will be targeted because of how they look or assumptions over where they come from.  This government has a duty to act but cannot tackle something that has not been defined.  

The UK government is taking the historic step of adopting a non-statutory definition of anti-Muslim hostility which makes it clear what is unacceptable prejudice, discrimination and hatred directed at Muslims or those perceived to be Muslim.   

Crucially, this definition protects the fundamental right to freedom of speech while protecting people from unacceptable abuse and violence. A special representative on anti-Muslim hostility will also be appointed to support action to strengthen understanding, reporting and response.   

This sits alongside a new suite of measures to bring communities across the country together:  

  • Tough action on extremism with stronger powers to shut down charities promoting extremism and transformed capability to disrupt extremists, including stopping hate preachers entering the UK, and an annual State of Extremism report.   
  • Clear expectations will be set around integration for people looking to settle in the UK, focused on shared language, local participation and respect for shared values. To support this, the Government will look at how English is taught, and if new technology can help more people can speak the language confidently.   
  • A £500,000 investment in community-led school linking projects will bring children from different backgrounds together, helping them forge friendships and understand what they have in common. And tougher oversight of home education – including the first-ever mandatory register of children not in school – will ensure no child misses out on the shared values and experiences that bind communities together. 

This all builds on the £5.8 billion committed to hundreds of areas through the Pride in Place programme, with power put in the hands of local people. 

Building Stronger Communities

Paper proposes way forward to create stronger,self-sustaining communities

The Jimmy Reid Foundation has released a new report called ‘Building stronger communities’ (LINK FOR PAPER HERE) by Dave Watson.

Building upon his earlier papers for the Jimmy Reid Foundation, in this new paper he argues the pandemic has highlighted the importance of strong communities for supporting each other despite communities of place having been undermined by recent austerity.

The pandemic has also highlighted that political opportunities are opening up for society to be organised in new and quite different ways from before. In this context, he puts forward a set of proposals to create stronger, self-sustaining communities.

Summarising the paper: 

  • Watson makes the case for a comprehensive programme to rebuild communities as the building block of a more equal, democratic, healthier and sustainable society. To do this, he deploys the concept of ‘social infrastructure’, namely, the physical conditions that determine whether personal relationships can flourish. When social infrastructure is robust, he argues, it fosters contact, mutual support, and collaboration among friends and neighbours. When degraded, it inhibits social activity, leaving families and individuals to fend for themselves. Watson looks at a wide range of initiatives that can strengthen social infrastructure including housing, libraries, leisure facilities, voluntary organisations, community ownership and the role of planning.
  • In this context, he argues that it has to be recognised that the governance of public services in Scotland is one of the most centralised in Europe. Consequently, he makes the case for national government to focus on setting frameworks, and leaving the delivery of services to local democratic control. And so, local integrated services should, he argues, be based around community hubs in recognisable communities of place. But this also includes, he suggests, repurposing our town centres in Scotland via community wealth building based on wellbeing and inclusion. 
  • And, given the impact of austerity, Watson also recommends that stronger communities require fair funding for local services. Therefore, in addition to a fairer allocation of grant support, he argues the reform of both the council tax and business rates is long overdue and as are considering local levies for revitalised Common Good funds and the taxation of digital services. He adds that accompanying measures to decentralise powers at the local level are essential to democratise society and economy.

Commenting on his paper, Dave Watson said: ‘The paper argues that stronger communities will not happen by mere accident or as a result of more political rhetoric. Instead of a series of piecemeal initiatives, we need a comprehensive programme of action that covers all the factors that help build stronger communities.

By making communities the building block of our society, we can create a fairer Scotland where we care about each other, where people can pool their resources, demand accountability, build institutions and influence the decisions that affect them. This responds to evidence from polling that people want to be more engaged, but generally don’t feel part of the decision-making process.’

Dave Watson was head of policy and public affairs at UNISON Scotland until retiring in September 2018.  He has been a government advisor on public service reform, health and energy policy.

He was an expert advisor to the Christie Commission that set the current framework for public service reform in Scotland. He now works on policy development, human resource and pension consultancy projects and is Secretary of the Socialist Health Association Scotland.

His previous papers for the Jimmy Reid Foundation papers are ‘Public Service Reform’ (2017) and ‘Municipal Socialism for Modern Scotland’ (2018).

He blogs at http://unisondave.blogspot.com

Yours sincerely

Professor Gregor Gall, 

Director, The Jimmy Reid Foundation