Prosperity and justice after the pandemic
Article
Covid-19 has exacerbated many of the existing challenges facing the UK economy - but it has also created an opportunity to ‘build back better’.
‘Building back better’ after the pandemic must mean creating an economy that delivers both prosperity and justice for all citizens. A new consensus on economic policy is beginning to emerge with the government embracing unprecedented stimulus measures during the crisis, but to really ‘build back better’ we will have to do much more than increase investment: we need to challenge damaging concentrations of power.
IPPR’s Centre for Economic Justice has identified four key power shifts that we believe policy makers should address.
- Power needs to be shifted to employees and workers, from employers and shareholders.
- Power needs to be shifted to companies that work in the interest of society from those that extract from society.
- Power needs to shift to those who are locked out of wealth from a system that has locked up wealth.
- Power needs to be shifted to the nations, regions, and towns of the UK from Whitehall.
Related items
Avoiding austerity 2.0: Why is the government considering tax rises at the budget?
Whether we look at the courts, hospitals, prisons or GP services, the nation’s public services are in a dire state.Transforming asylum accommodation
Asylum accommodation costs have soared in recent years, with billions of pounds being spent on housing people in inadequate conditions, which is both a waste of public funds and a failure to meet policy objectives.Bookkeepers or changemakers? Understanding the chancellor’s choices ahead of the budget
The Labour party won the last election by ‘de-risking’ a Labour vote on key economic policy agendas. At the heart of this was a strategy to regain Labour’s reputation for economic competence.