ResPublica The Coming Year in Parliament Thursday 10th May 2012 Reflecting on the announcements in Her Majesty The Queen's State Opening of Parliament, ResPublica respond to the Government's legislative plans and highlight the priorities from our own three core workstreams for the 2012-2013 Parliamentary term. From the future of finance to social care reforms, forthcoming work will inform, respond to and lead Parliamentary and public debate in innovating a civic and social economy. The Government’s priorities pivot on the need to recover the UK economy. But what is missing is a clear sense of the nature and type of economy as fundamental to determining the success of the Coalition and their policies for decades to come. Through our New Economies, Innovative Markets workstream, ResPublica will call on a number of measures to re-ground markets back into our localities and the human relationships that are so crucial for social good. Reforming the Energy Market The energy market is a key priority for Parliament in the coming year. The announcement of the Energy Bill, and legislation to realise the Green Investment Bank, will push forward Government ambitions to reform the electricity market across the UK to enable large-scale investment in low-carbon generation capacity, and through the Green Investment Bank, improve the competitiveness and efficiency of the industry in England and Wales. Whilst opening up the energy market to more than the big suppliers to de-concentrate the market and stimulate economic growth, much more can be done to diversify technologies, 1
industries and the array of ‘energy production assets’. As highlighted in ResPublica’s recent Green Paper, Re-energising Our Communities: Transforming the energy market through local energy production,1 communities and localities across the UK are often well placed to deliver community-owned energy solutions, especially where the local asset comes to benefit those struggling to pay their utility bills. The Coalition Agreement pledged ‘to support community ownership of renewable energy schemes’, but there are presently too few opportunities for communities and a diversity of players to enter into key policies for the coming year surrounding fuel poverty and particularly electricity market reform. ResPublica’s upcoming research priorities will therefore extend our argument further, and ask how the Energy Bill could be instrumental in not only diversifying existing models of supply and production, but also in democratising the grid systems, and financing mechanisms, to deliver a truly transformative energy market in the UK.
The Future for Banking The provision of the Banking Reform Bill will implement structural separation of retail and investment arms within banks, so that banking services are less likely to need to draw on support from the public purse. However, ‘ring-fencing’ is not the ultimate answer to an endemic problem which was catapulted into the public eye as a result of the bailouts. The scope of the proposed reforms could be extended and radicalised to look at the nature, ethos and purpose of the financial sector in the UK, and the ways in which new intermediaries are emerging to address this deficit. Already, independent and unsubsidised models of local, peer-to-peer and social finance are leading the way in democratising financial markets. Alongside these new initiatives, there is a complementary place for traditional institutions. ResPublica’s forthcoming work will explore the potential mutuality in finance services and address the requirements for lending and incorporating shared values into economic transactions, the need to shift the power over money back into the hands of the people; and in doing so encourage a new wave of productive investment that will be the sustainable engine of growth for the 21st Century.
Competition Reform As part of the wide-ranging Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, the announcement that competition enforcement will be strengthened by merging the Competition Commission and parts of the Office of Fair Trading is a welcome initiative. Current ResPublica work on competition reform emphasises that a single authority is necessary for future UK competition
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Julian, C. and Dobson, J. (2011), Re-energising Our Communities: Transforming the energy market through local energy production, ResPublica http://respublica.org.uk/documents/cou_ResPublica%20Reenergising%20Our%20Communities%20FINAL.pdf
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policy to truly engender market diversity and innovation. This said, the provisions of the Bill are only one step towards these ends. Competition policy in its current form is too focused on short-term results. The narrow and short-term focus on efficiency driving the competition regime undermines creativity and the spirit of innovation latent in the UK business sector. It is imperative that competition policy is re-oriented towards long-term policy objectives of enhancing not only entrepreneurship and innovation, but a framework of social responsibility and community accountability too. In this respect, the Groceries Code Adjudicator Bill is also a welcome initiative which will help ensure fairness and ethical practice in the grocery retail market and allow small retailers to thrive, an objective forwarded in ResPublica’s report The Right to Retail: Can Localism save Britain’s small retailers?2 It is equally problematic that the current competition regime fails to support collaboration between businesses, or provide a route by which collaboration can be tested for its legality. UK mergers between businesses are almost encouraged by EU anti-trust legislation partly as a result of the failure to think through productive forms of co-operation - leading to an increase in market concentration. The levels of market concentration and the uncompetitive behaviour across industries exhibiting oligopolistic tendencies limit the ability of new businesses and SMEs to enter the market and prosper. At a time when economic growth is so fundamental to policy-making, it is important that these negative effects of the current interpretation of competition law are addressed as a matter of urgency.
Beyond the Bills… Soaring levels of youth unemployment and lack of prospects mean that a distinctive agenda for tackling this generational crisis is needed. ResPublica will seek to lead the policy debate in this area through radical recommendations for the labour market which deliberate employment patterns and structures, including a proposal for job-sharing to facilitate skills transfer and cross-generational learning.3
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Schoenborn, A. (2011) The Right to Retail: Can Localism save Britain’s small retailers? ResPublica, http://www.respublica.org.uk/item/The-Right-to-Retail-idmi-mesh-wkeb-gcuq-vecw-tvqh 3
For further information, see http://www.respublica.org.uk/item/New-Intergenerational-Covenant-Employmentopportunities-for-the-young-work-life-balance-for-older-people
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Models and Partnerships for Social Prosperity sets out to explore how innovative models for service delivery and new partnerships between communities, businesses and the public sector can radically change social and economic outcomes. The reform of the social care system came out as the lead bill within this area, but attention was drawn toward outstanding funding issues rather than the possibility to charter truly transformative public service reform. As part of our research priorities for the coming year, ResPublica will engage with the proposed reforms to open the public sector and engender participation, social value and innovation, with the social care system as its focus, seeking opportunities to transform service users from passive recipients to entrepreneurs.
Health and Social Care The Draft Social Care Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech, will set out to simplify the array of legislation currently targeted at adult care and support, but how its delivery is to be paid for remains unresolved. Although there continue to be party and sector divides following on from the aftermath of the Dilnot Commission, the Coalition Government have continually remained committed to fit services around users’ needs, putting people in control of their care and giving them greater choice. Whilst the upcoming bill will progress on the realisation of this agenda, an extensive review of the potential opportunities for social care and those whom it concerns is yet to be substantially explored. The need for greater personalisation of public services and a bottomup, integrated approach, has remained a consistent priority for the Coalition Government since the outset of its administration. So too has the opening up of public services and the need to broker in the community in localised care, and a support system that can generate ‘social value’ as a core output of delivery, exemplified by the past parliamentary session’s enactment of Chris White MP’s Public Services (Social Value) Bill. ResPublica’s work will seek to charter the future of this terrain, by exploring the opportunities for more entrepreneurial and asset-based uses of personal budgets, including the possibility for start-up micro-enterprises and service users’ participation in service delivery. Beyond ongoing discussions surrounding the funding of health and social care, our upcoming research will assess the possibility for passive recipients to become active owners and entrepreneurs, and outline the barriers across policy agendas that prevent this vision to take place.
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Local Autonomy The increased focus in local accountability and transparency of local public bodies in England promised in the Draft Local Audit Bill will no doubt increase the levels of local control that councils have over their own process and affairs. These changes represent the changing focus towards local autonomy, and are one step towards the radical reforms which could be realised by the Government’s Localism Agenda. However, in order to achieve radical and transformative benefits, government should go even further to create real financial and legislative autonomy for localities, such as establishing an independent redistribution commission for tax revenues for local councils. ResPublica’s work will also look forward to new models for commissioning and shaping public services by channelling resources, and defining local social value. Our forthcoming conference in Summer 2012 will explore the potential opportunities and challenges yet to be addressed in demonstrating social impact and diversifying public sector models best suited for our diverse communities.4 We will also be pursuing active partnerships with local councils to evidence and realise ways of capitalising on the provisions of the Localism Act.
Beyond the Bills… Despite the anticipated publication of the Government’s mutual taskforce report, the Department for Communities and Local Government’s consultation for co-operative councils and the wider hype surrounding the 2012 International Year of the Co-operatives, there was no mention in this year’s speech of David Cameron’s consolidated ‘Co-operatives Bill’ and the Government’s wider mutuals agenda. Although much emphasis was given to the stimulation of the economy for the coming year, we would urge the Government to take into account the importance of employee participation in driving down costs and driving up efficiency and quality of services, and in addition the delivery of a healthy return for those ‘invested’ in the enterprise. As further reforms to our public services continue throughout this year, and the call for a consolidated co-operatives bill becomes more and more prescient, ResPublica will continue to take the lead by drawing thought leaders and policy makers together throughout our ‘Co-operatives Series’ and upcoming connected publications. The omission of the Higher Education Bill is a missed opportunity to introduce some stability and transparency into the sector. Although there are many reservations about the introduction of private-for profit model into the sector, it is not as dangerous as the persistent short termism and the lack of policy vision for higher education. Acting on the recognition that the economic prosperity of the UK rests on innovation and the high value-add economy, of which universities are at the heart, ResPublica aims to articulate a new vision for a civic university: a platform bringing together the interests of universities, businesses and local communities. 4
For further information, see http://www.respublica.org.uk/item/Putting-Social-Value-at-the-Heart-of-PublicServices.
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The Queen’s speech had much to announce about our institutions, from the smallest institution of the family to the House of Lords. The focus on the family and relationships is an integral policy move, but further debate and careful consideration needs to take place before reform in order to ensure that our political systems and institutions work best for wider society rather than the government of the present day. Future work under ResPublica’s British Civic Life workstream will continue to draw on the social and cultural heritage of civil society, from grassroots groups to embedded institutions.
Charitable Donations The implementation of a new system of top-up payments for small cash donations to charities, incorporated into the Small Donations Bill, is a welcome initiative relating to ResPublica’s emphasis on the need to extend cultures of philanthropy and giving on a national scale, and reminiscent of the recommendations in our report Digital Giving: Modernising Gift Aid; Taking Civil Society into the Digital Age5 to ease administrative burdens on charities. ResPublica’s vision for extending the scope of giving will draw on the development of the Government's strategy to instil a ‘giving culture’ to British society, and ask whether peer-topeer and local networks, in addition to growing technologies and online platforms mark the way forward for potential philanthropists throughout the UK. We also will investigate how new models of collaboration between individuals, the private and not-for-profit sectors could boost cultures of giving and take investment for social impact into the mainstream. Our work in this area will explore how the introduction of new blended vehicles and tax acknowledgements for a sustainable and profitable social economy could take philanthropy beyond traditional notions of charity and social good. Complementary to these initiatives, we will also account for the wealth of non-monetary giving such as time banks and food banks, in order to develop a holistic approach to philanthropy and locate wider opportunities for a diverse range of individuals and communities to come together, crowd-source and invest in their community-driven ambitions and public services.
House of Lords Reform The House of Lords Reform Bill has been the subject of numerous headlines and served to exacerbate disagreements between and within all major political parties. Earlier this year, ResPublica called for an approach to reform that proceeds from the meaning and purpose of 5
Middleton, S. and Singh, A. (2010), Digital Giving: Modernising Gift Aid; Taking Civil Society into the Digital Age, ResPublica http://www.respublica.org.uk/item/Charities-missing-out-on-%C2%A3750-million-of-Gift-Aid-because-of-antiquated-systemsays-new-ResPublica-Report-vlfo-ncle-ixzy-jwtw-blhj-nmzv-djjy
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the Second Chamber and accounts for the reciprocal, participative and co-operative function that the House of Lords can play.6 Within our conclusions, we argued that recent attempts at reform will not wholly transform the political system because they do not outline first and foremost how the Second Chamber can best reflect civil society. As Frank Field MP argues within our collection, “A radical Lords reform could be based on seeking the representation of all the major legitimate interest groups in our society and of using the idea of the ‘Big Society’ as a means of strengthening how representation works in our democracy.” Although such principles were reflected in the ‘Alternative Proposal’, forwarded by a number of members of the Joint Committee reporting on the draft bill,7 the Coalition Government has pressed ahead with their ambitions to reform. ResPublica will engage with the bill as it progresses through Parliament, reasserting the importance of a Lords that is inclusive of the diversity of our society. We also intend to explore and outline the role of faith leaders in the House of Lords, and the wider debate surrounding faith group’s engagement with public policy. Faith leaders play a central role in representing the views and voices of individuals and groups in their own constituencies and across the spectrum, and indeed add a value framework beyond that of partisan politics to promote and contribute to the common good.
Beyond the Bills… The Coalition Government made an informed decision to exclude a further institution, that of marriage, in their list of upcoming Parliamentary priorities, but with the Home Office’s consultation due to close in June, and Barack Obama’s recent announcement in support of same sex marriage in the US, the topic is set to be a popular discussion point for the months ahead. In the additional context of the Government’s Social Justice initiative, which will set to place families and human relationships at the centre of future policy, ResPublica will be exploring the definition and purpose of the family, the household and relationships in order to unearth core principles and stimulate a transformative debate. Human relationships and reciprocity form the smallest, but also ground the largest of our institutions. Centralising their importance across the policy terrain will be of heightened importance, particularly during the time of austerity, in the coming year.
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Julian, C. (ed.) (2012), Our House: Reflections on Representation and Reform in the House of Lords, ResPublica http://respublica.org.uk/documents/pfr_ResPublica%20Reflections%20on%20Representation%20and%20Reform %20in%20the%20House%20of%20Lords.pdf 7
See Caroline Julian, Senior Researcher and Project Manager at ResPublica: New Statesman (26th April 2012), “House of Lords Reform: What difference does it make?”, http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/house-lords-reform-what-difference-will-it-make
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