By Lukasz Krebel
05 Jul 2021
The Bank of England’s (BoE) Monetary Policy Committee meets today, and will publish its first Monetary Policy Report since the Bank was given an updated ‘net zero’ mandate at the... Read More
By Charlotte Morgan and Luca Tiratelli
16 Jun 2021
What’s the role of inclusive growth in recovering from crisis? It’s easy to see as a ‘nice-to-have’, but can be at the centre of helping us build back better.... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
04 Jun 2021
The results of May’s 2021 local elections will have dismayed those who care about progressive causes, as showcased in Rethinking Poverty. But can we learn anything from them about... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
06 May 2021
As the UK takes further steps towards ending the restrictions of lockdown, April’s Talking Points looks at what the pandemic has meant for the future of work and what... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
07 Apr 2021
January and February’s Talking Points focused on poverty and equality and the climate crisis, looking for glimmers of hope and finding not many – at least not in the... Read More
By Malcolm Torry
31 Mar 2021
Lack of income security is widely recognised as a major problem – and one that has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Could a Basic Income help? And is... Read More
By Pippa Coutts
09 Mar 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic, with its many challenges has tested our ability to innovate. Many of us associate the idea of innovation with bright, new objects or processes, and this... Read More
By Nadia Whittome
02 Mar 2021
The Covid-19 pandemic has shone a light on the discrepancy between the work we most urgently need as a society, and the work we value and reward. So many of... Read More
By Fernanda Balata
25 Feb 2021
In 2015, we put out a paper outlining a common vision for coastal communities. Our work found that creating and supporting good, sustainable jobs is completely compatible with maintaining a healthy... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
04 Feb 2021
With a new lockdown announced on 4 January and schools closed across the country, 2021 got off to a bad start. By 25 January, Gordon Brown was warning that... Read More
By Anna Coote & Aidan Harper
28 Jan 2021
Shorter working time should be at the heart of post-pandemic recovery. That’s the message of The Case for a Four Day Week, published by Polity this month, and written by... Read More
By Ruth Lister
27 Jan 2021
The coronavirus pandemic has exposed and aggravated the economic insecurity experienced by a growing number of members of society. This may encourage greater understanding of the acute insecurity typically... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
07 Jan 2021
2020 has been a year like no other in living memory, with two months pre-Covid and the rest of the year forming the first part of the post-Covid era.... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
02 Dec 2020
A recent article by Gordon Brown in the New Statesman bore the title ‘How to save the United Kingdom’ – and he is not alone in painting a bleak... Read More
By Holly Barrow
25 Nov 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic has once more highlighted that the UK’s social security system is in dire need of reform. Chancellor Rishi Sunak himself seemingly identified its shortcomings, as he... Read More
By Alice Martin and Annie Quick
19 Nov 2020
The impact of Covid-19 has been a powerful reminder of the leverage workers could collectively hold. Care workers, supermarket cashiers and couriers – usually dismissed as “unskilled” – have demonstrated... Read More
By Caroline Hartnell
18 Nov 2020
The rhetoric across the political spectrum is that we need a green recovery. We are also seeing growing public outrage at increases in poverty. This was the background to... Read More
By Neil McInroy
12 Nov 2020
We are optimists in local government. But that optimism is being stretched to breaking point: by this pandemic, by ongoing public service austerity, rising demand, insecure finances and stalled... Read More
By Sarah Davidson
05 Nov 2020
Those of you who follow the work of the Trust will know that our calls for governments to focus on societal wellbeing aren’t new. We have been working on... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
04 Nov 2020
With the UK now facing a second wave of coronavirus and an England-wide lockdown just announced, October’s Talking Points is less focused on recovery and the changing world of... Read More
By The Alternative UK
27 Oct 2020
A/UK’s joint report with the Local Trust, where Plymouth residents wrestle with COVID, and point to the future Communities and localities have often responded quickly, effectively and innovatively to... Read More
By Neil McInroy, Joe Bilsborough & Charlie Fisher
14 Oct 2020
Just over a year ago, our organisations – the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) and Development Trusts NI (DTNI) – jointly penned Time to build an inclusive local... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
07 Oct 2020
This month’s Talking Points picks up August’s discussions of the changing world of work and the knock-on effects on cities. It also looks at the inexorable rise of poverty... Read More
By Hannah Ormston
16 Sep 2020
What does community mean to you? Whether it means stopping to catch up with your neighbour in your local park; knowing where to access support if you need it;... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
02 Sep 2020
Lockdown has seen huge changes in the world of work – most notably the rise of home working. With the furlough scheme coming to its end and the government... Read More
By Jennifer Wallace
26 Aug 2020
The Carnegie UK Trust works to improve personal, community and societal wellbeing. Many of the issues that we work on, and the partners and groups who we work with,... Read More
By Andrew Webster
19 Aug 2020
‘Indeed, the one thing these prophecies had in common was that, ultimately, all were reassuring. Unfortunately, though, the plague was not.’ ‘The truth is that nothing is less sensational... Read More
By Caroline Hartnell
13 Aug 2020
The last few months of lockdown have seen organisations across the country finding innovative ways to meet the challenges presented by the pandemic. As we edge back to ‘normal’,... Read More
By John Hudson, Neil Lunt and Ruth Patrick
12 Aug 2020
As the UK emerges tentatively from lockdown, and the economic and social implications of the crisis start to solidify, there is an inevitable and valid debate about what shape... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
05 Aug 2020
With recovery packages being debated the world over, we stand at a crossroads. This month we start by looking at the widely divergent options we face, and the need... Read More
By Hannah Ormston, Rachel Heydecker and Pippa Coutts
04 Aug 2020
The Carnegie UK Trust works to improve personal, community and societal wellbeing. Many of the issues that we work on, and the partners and groups who we work with,... Read More
By Barry Knight
30 Jul 2020
To follow up his article, #BuildBackBetter, Barry Knight is researching practical ways to make this happen. In the first of a series of articles, he examines the role of... Read More
By Andrew Webster
23 Jul 2020
‘What’s natural is the microbe. All the rest – health, integrity, purity (if you like) – is a product of the human will, of a vigilance that must never... Read More
By Frances Jones
17 Jul 2020
Build back better. It’s a powerful phrase, but as post-Covid-19 economic policies begin to emerge, those three words are starting to ring hollow. Based on what we have seen... Read More
By Jonty Leibowitz
16 Jul 2020
Covid-19 and the climate emergency both expose in different ways the fundamental lack of resilience in how we develop local economies in the UK. There has been a lot... Read More
By Gemma Lawrence
10 Jul 2020
The #BuildBackBetter coalition, which consists of 350 organisations from business, trade unions and civil society, was launched on 29 June. On its website it is described as ‘a platform for... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
08 Jul 2020
As the UK moves further away from lockdown, the question of recovery comes ever more to the fore. This month we start with the new #BuildBackBetter coalition, launched against... Read More
By Andrew Webster
07 Jul 2020
‘All I maintain is that on this earth there are pestilences and there are victims, and it’s up to us, so far as possible, not to join forces with... Read More
By Andrew Simms
02 Jul 2020
A decade of economic hardship seemed to have transformed for increasingly urban workforces the promise of shorter working weeks and better work – life balances into bleaker futures, of... Read More
By Anya Bonner
01 Jul 2020
Across the country, the COVID-19 pandemic is both highlighting and reinforcing existing inequalities, poverty and exclusion faced by many in the UK. Most of these problems existed long before... Read More
By Andrew Webster
30 Jun 2020
‘The truth is that everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits.’ Albert Camus, The Plague This is the third in a series of articles in which Andrew Webster... Read More
24 Jun 2020
The crisis reveals much and will change more – for good or bad. Everything feels like it is now up for grabs. There is much pain and suffering and... Read More
By Andrew Webster
23 Jun 2020
‘Perhaps the easiest way of making a town’s acquaintance is to ascertain how the people in it work, how they love, and how they die.’ Albert Camus, The Plague This... Read More
By Alex Talbott
18 Jun 2020
While human suffering is not a win for climate justice, could new timescales for international cooperation foster the mechanism for urgent environmental action? Our body has a virus, a... Read More
By Holly Barrow
17 Jun 2020
As the coronavirus pandemic wreaks havoc across the globe, it has once again become clear that not all of us are equally equipped to weather this storm. Casting a... Read More
By Andrew Webster
16 Jun 2020
‘Stupidity has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves.’ Albert Camus, The Plague Barry Knight’s 2017... Read More
By Alex Talbott
11 Jun 2020
With our worlds increasingly online, young people’s contribution to the design of our digital future is essential. Unsurprisingly, the impact of technology (both positive and negative) wove its way... Read More
By James Morrison-Knight
10 Jun 2020
‘If I’m honest I am just tired Tired of everyday filling up my car and Knowing that I’m paying for the bombs in Iraq Tired of pretending like it... Read More
By Alex Talbott
04 Jun 2020
Students challenge a restrictive curriculum: why education should be more than academic. The subject of education is perhaps the area where we are naturally most willing to accept the... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
03 Jun 2020
As the UK takes the first faltering steps out of lockdown, the focus is more than ever on the ‘what next?’ question. Will the coronavirus crisis lead to a... Read More
By Marian Barnes
02 Jun 2020
Sometimes, when times seem unlike anything we have known before, we need to reach for ideas that are not new. The current crisis does not necessarily mean that we have... Read More
By Alex Talbott
28 May 2020
What is ‘community’? What does it look like? How has our perception of the term changed in the course of the coronavirus crisis? Any meaningful engagement with the idea... Read More
By Caroline Hartnell
27 May 2020
Monday 11 May saw the launch of a new report from Positive Money called The Tragedy of Growth. That same day a webinar brought an audience of almost 900... Read More
By Andrew Simms
26 May 2020
Quieter streets, cleaner air, more time – amidst the human tragedy of the Covid-19 outbreak other experiences are inviting people to ask more of the quality of their home... Read More
By Alex Talbott
21 May 2020
The Orwell Youth Prize is a social justice-based writing programme and prize for young people (aged 12-18) from across the UK. This academic year, the Prize has been working... Read More
By Neil McInroy
18 May 2020
For some in the local economic development community there is talk of a post crisis “bounce back” – reflective of an idea that the economy is on a purely... Read More
15 May 2020
Compass last week published a paper Towards a Good Society, written by Ruth Lister, Labour peer and the outgoing chair of the Compass board. Cries of ‘we cannot go... Read More
By Lauren Pennycook
14 May 2020
COVID-19 and Wellbeing Blogs: The Carnegie UK Trust works to improve personal, community and societal wellbeing. Many of the issues that we work on, and the partners and groups... Read More
By Avila Kilmurray
13 May 2020
Reaching beyond ‘silos, egos and logos’ was the challenge that Neal Lawson of Compass threw out to activists in Northern Ireland. A webinar on 28 April, ‘Empowering Voices in... Read More
By Katy Goldstraw, John Diamond
12 May 2020
The unprecedented challenges created by the global COVID-19 pandemic have brought about many examples of human kindness, compassion and value-driven policy responses. Painted rainbows in windows across the country... Read More
By Andrew Simms
07 May 2020
In the debate over the global response to Covid19 a battle of hashtags has broken out between those urging a quick return to ‘normal’, and those saying that ‘normal’... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
06 May 2020
Life continues to be dominated by coronavirus. This month’s Talking Points focuses mainly on the all-important question of ‘what next?’ Has the market economy had its day? Will we... Read More
By Gemma Lawrence
05 May 2020
We recently looked at the ‘explosion in citizen-led action in response to the coronavirus pandemic’. This week, we look at how some businesses have responded to the crisis. In... Read More
By Andrew Simms
30 Apr 2020
How quickly the brain adapts to the new normal – Emily Maitlis, BBC Newsnight, 25/03/2020 In late 2018 the Rapid Transition Alliance launched with the purpose of building a... Read More
By Caroline Hartnell
29 Apr 2020
‘Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That,... Read More
By The Alternative UK
24 Apr 2020
From our beginning, we’ve identified Universal Basic Income as a foundational policy for A/UK – as a way to ground active citizenship, encourage creative living, redistribute wealth and collectively... Read More
By Caroline Hartnell
22 Apr 2020
Last week, we covered New Economics Foundation’s (NEF’s) first weekly economics briefing which looked at how we can win the economic recovery after coronavirus. This week’s focused on ‘Fixing... Read More
By Ben Thurman
21 Apr 2020
COVID-19 and Wellbeing Blogs: The Carnegie UK Trust works to improve personal, community and societal wellbeing. Many of the issues that we work on, and the partners and groups... Read More
By Sarah Arnold
20 Apr 2020
The Minimum Income Guarantee would make sure no one falls through the gaps in our social security system. Yesterday the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) revealed that nearly one... Read More
By Sue Tibballs
17 Apr 2020
“Neighbourhoods are the cells which keep society whole. We are threatened with infections, from outside and from within; our powers of resistance and eventual recovery depend largely on whether... Read More
By The Alternative UK
16 Apr 2020
Coronavirus, and its strange distancing, compels us all to rethink how we come together. Our mutual care and sense of collective responsibility is expressed by NOT being physically close,... Read More
By Caroline Hartnell
15 Apr 2020
New Economics Foundation (NEF) will be holding Weekly Economics Briefings to discuss challenges the coronavirus crisis poses to progressives — from analysing policy decisions to highlighting the organising being done in... Read More
By Matt Mellen
09 Apr 2020
This pandemic is a further wake up call things need to radically change and many of the emergency measures help the planet too The human tragedy of the coronavirus... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
08 Apr 2020
Since the last Talking Points went out, our world has been completely turned upside down. The country is in lockdown. Nothing is certain. March Talking Points is inevitably focused... Read More
By Barry Knight
07 Apr 2020
What does it mean to ‘build back better?’ Coronavirus has changed our world forever. Plans made a few weeks ago seem outdated at best or undoable at worst. The... Read More
By Romy Krämer, Graciela Hopstein and Halima Mahomed
02 Apr 2020
The global Corona pandemic might very well be the biggest crisis of our lifetime. The current situation has the potential to not only disrupt the status quo but to... Read More
By Gemma Lawrence
01 Apr 2020
The last few weeks have seen an explosion in citizen-led action in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, we looked at the 1000s of Covid-19 Mutual Aid groups... Read More
By Uplift
31 Mar 2020
These are uncertain and challenging times for people trying to push for progressive, people-first solutions to the crisis presented to us by COVID-19. Being deliberate in the way in... Read More
By Stuart Cartland
26 Mar 2020
The current national and global crisis in which we find ourselves has exposed the myth that a society based upon individualism can work, flourish and be sustainable. We can... Read More
By Julia Unwin
25 Mar 2020
We’ve known that a global pandemic would come for decades, and it’s been modelled and planned for time after time. But when it comes it’s a massive and terrifying... Read More
By Neil McInroy
24 Mar 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic has destabilised our present and will profoundly affect our social, economic and political future. Whilst we do not know how events will progress, we can be sure that things will never be the same again. There will be no going back. The... Read More
By Helen Barnard
23 Mar 2020
As we come to terms with what Coronavirus could mean for us and our families, we urge the Government to keep people who are restricted by low incomes front of... Read More
By Neal Lawson
20 Mar 2020
Most of us have experienced nothing like this before. It is strange, forbidding and dislocating to a degree probably only experienced by those alive in the early 1940s. Events... Read More
By Daniel Button
19 Mar 2020
During a pandemic, the last thing we should be doing is putting more barriers in the way of access to healthcare. Rishi Sunak has announced increases to the Immigration... Read More
By Rethinking Poverty
18 Mar 2020
Over 900 local groups have now been established across the UK to provide support to people throughout the covid-19 outbreak. A spokesperson for Covid-19 Mutual Aid UK said: ‘In... Read More
