Levelling Up Requires More Than A New Model PM
Why it’s time for No.10 to run on a different operating system
During Boris Johnsons inaugural speech outside Downing Street in 2019, the latest model of the UK’s PM vibrated with promise as he pledged to answer “the plea of the forgotten people and the left behind towns”. A few months later, the PM pinged with excitement at the Conservative Party Conference, promising the ‘forgotten people’ improvements in “the liveability of their town or their village”.
Like consumers in 2007 faced with the choice between the familiarity of their Symbian powered Nokia and the shiny new iOS powered iPhone, the forgotten people switched in their thousands to the ‘Boris iPhone’ and delivered him a landslide in the December General Election.
But over 18 months later, the forgotten people could be forgiven for thinking their shiny new Boris is Symbian powered after all. For all the look and feel of ‘Boris’, the operating system inside the No.10 machine is still powered by the same orthodoxies for growth and prosperity that have repeatedly failed the ‘forgotten people’.
In 1942, William Beveridge who took charge of upgrading Britain’s economy, began by examining the existing operating system and concluded that to achieve greater shared prosperity, Britain would need to switch to a new, bold operating system. A similar step change is required again now.
If ‘levelling up’ is to be felt by the ‘forgotten people’ of Blythe Valley, Workington and the 45 other Red Wall seats that turned blue on 12 December 2019, then it must focus on the relationship between individual lives — their quality, aspiration and purpose — and the larger systems and constraints within which they are embedded. We urgently need a redefinition of prosperity that is less concerned with GDP, economic wealth and growth, to one that focuses on what people value and need.
Through citizen-led research with citizen social scientists as well as, voluntary and community sector organisations around east London, the Institute for Global Prosperity co-created a ‘Prosperity Index’. The index reflected the actual lived experiences of people and what factors drove their prosperity, which represents a shift away from traditional macroeconomic approaches that focus on top down targets such as jobs created or roads built.
Our research consistently identified secure livelihoods as the most important factor to people’s prosperity. This means the foundations for a prosperous life were: secure and good quality jobs and income, access to key public services, good quality and genuinely affordable homes, and a sense of inclusion in the economic and social life of the city including digital inclusion.
The Prosperity Index is powering real change — as iOS did for mobile phones. If Britain is to ‘Build Back Better’ it needs a different operating system. One that is ‘open source’ to enable a sharing of knowledge and provide a platform for citizens, local government, businesses and community organisations to collaborate, collectively make decisions, trial radical new approaches, and rapidly evaluate change.
The levelling-up White Paper is an opportunity to transform the top down, target led operating system; adopt a collaborative and inclusive approach that can bridge the widening participation gap, help repair the fractured trust between citizens and governments, and give people access to the tools, skills and relationships that enable them to prosper.
The forgotten people are entitled to nothing less.
