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Community spirit in a cold climate

Date of speech	29 April 2009
Location	Westminster Hall, London
Event summary	The CSV Edith Kahn Lecture

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Draft text of the speech - may differ from the delivered version.

Thank you to the CSV for hosting this annual lecture in memory of Edith Kahn, who I never knew, but by all accounts was my kind of woman: dedicated, diligent, and above all decent.

This evening I want to address the roles of citizenship and volunteering in a time of global recession, uncertainty and insecurity. My argument is simple: economic recession has the power to do one of two things to a society.

On one hand, it can drive people apart, with an increase in distrust between individuals, more naked competition for jobs, and a fracturing of community spirit. We witnessed this in the 1980s and early 1990s, and at its most extreme, it culminated in cars and buildings burning on the streets of Brixton, Birmingham, and Liverpool. In some wards in my own city of Salford, we had 50 per cent male unemployment, and it has taken a decade to repair the damage.

On the other hand, economic recession can be the catalyst for communities to come together, for neighbours to construct new forms of collaboration, and for citizens to discover new reserves of courage and kindness.

Which end of this spectrum we tilt towards will depend on a decisive factor: the role of the government in valuing volunteering, in creating space for local action, and in promoting innovation and experimentation.

My starting point is that the recession changes our politics in profound ways.

There can be no return to business as usual.

In a recession, nations face a choice. Like a ship at sea, you can cross your fingers and hope the storms will pass you by. Or you can batten down the hatches, and face the storms full on.

And as any captain will tell you, you don't sail safely through a storm by hoping for the best.

So faced with the choice of action or inaction, the Government is using the full power of the state to protect people's jobs, homes and businesses from the worst vagaries of the free market.

The immediate impact of recession on our politics is therefore a shift in favour of those who argue that governments can make a difference, and that not all politicians are the same. The part-nationalisation of the banks, the use of fiscal measures to stimulate spending, the intervention into the housing market, the decision to borrow to see our way through the recession: these measures prove that governments can and should have a decisive role.

But of course it can never just be about what governments do.

We are all products of our experiences. I learned my politics as a community activist and volunteer. I have never lost my conviction that where citizens are given control over their affairs, they make good decisions, balance competing demands in intelligent ways, act with fairness and compassion, and work together to solve problems.

Some years ago I wrote a pamphlet called The Politics of Decency, which made the point that we humans are in essence collaborative beings, capable of great love and kindness.

As the work of the CSV shows, and the voluntary tradition in Britain proves, we have taken to heart the imperative that 'we are our brother's keeper.'

So my conviction is that our route through this recession must be characterised by greater devolution of power, and more opportunities for communities to take control. Not 'on your bike' as in previous recessions, but how can we help you open a bike repair workshop, start a social enterprise to encourage cycling, or start a bike-share scheme in your neighbourhood?

We are pursuing our programme of greater control for communities as part of our response to the recession. Not a bolt-on extra, but an essential part of the programme.

For example:

• more transfer of assets like disused buildings, markets, leisure centres and so on to community groups, with democratic control over their direction. And the next stage is not just the transfer of ownership, but also sustainable sources of income for local groups to run local facilities and services.
• a boost to petition power so that councils must respond when people petition them.
• more participatory budgeting which really involve local people in big decisions about how money is spent.

In the wake of our mistrust of global financial institutions, there are new opportunities now for community shares and bonds; US-style community reinvestment programmes; and for a much closer look at how we measure the social return on public investment. The US Community Reinvestment Act, whereby financial institutions must plough some of their profits into communities, might serve as an interesting starting point.

I have asked my officials to work with experts in the field of community investment to bring forward by the summer a package of measures to give communities sustainable sources of income, through the recession, and into the recovery.

These initiatives draw on the strong British tradition of self-help, self-organisation and volunteering: the Co-op, Friendly Societies, the Workers' Educational Association (WEA) and the wealth of voluntary and charitable organisations and groups. They share the ideal that people can do it for themselves, with the right support.

It can be as simple as the Big Lunch, which will make 19 July a day when we sit together, eat together, meet together, break down barriers and build up relationships.

Or it can be as profound as the CSV's 'Agents 4 Change' campaign, which aims to give the next generation a proper stake in our society: or indeed its 'Make a Difference Day,' which mobilises tens of thousands of volunteers across the country to change their neighbourhood for the better, and will take place for the fourteenth year this October.

In the light of the failure of the institutions of the free market, these institutions of cooperation are truly in tune with the spirit of the age.

For me, this is about democratic renewal.

In some ways the democratic recession started many months before the economic one. We'd already seen the collapse of trust in politics, long before the collapse of confidence in the financial system. I am in no doubt whatsoever that the row over MPs' allowances, and the leaked emails, are as corrosive to our democracy as the row over bankers' bonuses and the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, Woolworths and so on are corrosive to our economy.

My hope is that the public's response to the crisis of legitimacy characterising our politics will be as constructive as at the key moments in our democratic development: when rejection of the Rotten Boroughs led to the Reform Acts, or when women's demands led to us getting the vote.

I am optimistic that the long, loud howl of outrage at the state of our politics can find practical expression through positive reform of the political system.

Political reform is not even just about voting anymore. Of course a democracy where a majority of voters turn up and vote every five years is preferable to one where a majority stay at home.

But even more preferable is a democracy where people take an active role in their communities, volunteer on boards and committees, take part in campaigns, and actively engage with their representatives. The internet provides the platform for these forms of direct democracy, through traditional methods such as petitioning, and new forms such as social networking, on-line campaigning, and mass mobilisation of people to attend flash mobs, pickets, or demonstrations.

I think of true democracy as a rich tapestry of these participatory, direct, and non-direct forms of citizen engagement: not competing with one another, but adding up to a better democracy overall.

A multi-layered civil society and multifaceted forms of social interaction become even more important in a recession. People who lose their job will often hear about other opportunities from friends, family or former colleagues. Social networks are often essential to finding work. Social mobility - the ability to get on and do well - often depends on the size of your BlackBerry contacts file, and the number of Facebook friends you have.

This sense of democracy means an enhanced primacy for citizenship, and a greater emphasis on the individual as part of society, with stronger bonds of reciprocity and kinship. Volunteering is part of this reciprocity: the selfless act by one human being to improve the well-being of another.

But so is a recasting of the relationship between the individual and wider society and the state.

The recession means that the state's spending will come under even greater scrutiny. Might I be as bold as to suggest that the kind of forensic scrutiny of income and expenditure, the emphasis on value for money, and getting the very best from people that is the hallmark of the voluntary sector, will need to become an even greater part of the public sector?

So as we reform our public services, the need for greater personal responsibility within the system becomes more pronounced. We simply cannot allow a recession to mean another generation reliant on benefits, more estates where few adults are in work, and where children live in families where no one has a normal job.

Our welfare system must not allow anyone to withdraw from society as the consequence of forced withdrawal from the labour market.

The voluntary sector will be able to play a hugely important role here: keeping people in touch with the world of work, providing skills training, bringing people together, and giving people inspiration and hope.

The next phase of public service reform must work to give people independence, not dependence, learning from schemes such as the expert patients programme, which empowers patients to direct their own treatment of chronic conditions, or the Family Intervention Projects, which give chaotic, dysfunctional and anti-social families structure to their lives and social rules to live by, as the backstop before eviction.

Family Intervention Projects cost up to £15,000 per family, with a dedicated social work team getting the family up in the morning, ensuring everyone is washed and dressed, getting the kids to do their homework in the evening, and making sure they go to bed at a reasonable time. But the cost of not intervening in this intense way, and involving many agencies from probation, police, truancy officers and the NHS instead, can be up to £350,000 per family.

These kinds of reforms empower the individual, and in doing so save the state money. There will need to be a new emphasis on better procurement: more local suppliers, more consideration for the environment, and more value for money.

But reforms will focus on changing behaviour by demanding more responsibility from the individual. They will rediscover the true purpose of the welfare state: getting people back on their feet when times get tough, and never allowing worklessness to be a deliberate lifestyle choice.

I was in Easterhouse recently with Bob Holman. I met some extraordinary men and women who are battling with great courage to turn their estate around: taking on the criminal gangs and drug dealers, bringing people together as neighbours, showing a better way forward for the young people. But it brought home to me how far we still have to go, how much more there is to do.

So the recession is changing our politics, making reform more, not less, likely.

It is creating a greater need for devolution of power.

It is serving as a catalyst for reform of the public services.

And within this maelstrom, the values of cooperation and collaboration, of public service and public duty, of compassion and care, of neighbourliness and reciprocity become more, not less important.

As we navigate the coming storms, I place my faith, not in dogma or ideology, but in the extraordinary common sense and decency of the ordinary people of Britain: the carers, the volunteers, the donors, the activists, and the decent people in every community.

The people, in short, like Edith Kahn.