LOCAL POLITICS AND PHILANTHROPY: TIME FOR A DEBATE
18 July 2017
The Government has been going big on transport this week,
extolling the virtues of its major high speed rail line, HS2, as over £6
billion worth of contracts have been announced.
According to the Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, HS2, a
much scrutinised project, will not only provide new seats (for commuters and
travellers, not MPs), but it will better connect our major cities, and will
help rebalance our economy.
This is something politicians have been debating for some
years – just how can we reconnect the UK’s towns and cities? How can we close
that North-South divide, or share wealth beyond the outer boundaries of the
M25? One answer, according to the Government is to build infrastructure like
high speed rail, carrying people north of Birmingham to cities like Sheffield
and Leeds and beyond. But railways will only get you so far, literally, and it’s
high time that government, and other policymakers started thinking seriously
about other ways to drive investment and growth into UK communities.
One thing that always seems to be missing from these
discussions is philanthropy. Why? Philanthropy played an integral role in the
success story of many of our great towns and cities in the UK. But as the
traditional industries which fuelled our towns and cites declined, so too did
the culture of giving within them, and it has not yet re-emerged to the same
extent.
Why then have policy makers been idle when it comes to
driving reinvestment through philanthropic means? Perhaps they don’t see it as
their remit – too busy delivering services to consider ways of funding them?
Or, arguably, has philanthropy become a bit of a dirty word, associated with a
certain segment of society that frankly isn’t always the most popular?
But with a new political agenda comes a renewed focus on our
towns and cities, and perhaps now the time is ripe to talk once again of
philanthropy? Here’s why:
1. Devolution in practice
Devolution, once a theoretical term bandied around as
something more concept than concrete, is now actually a thing. As power shifts
away from Westminster and is handed back to English regions, and especially
cities, policymakers will increasingly have closer ties with the areas they are
elected to serve, and therefore we can expect a renewed focus on the local, not
the national. That means that people are going to start thinking about issues
like filling the local high street, fixing bin collections and sorting out
local schools. But all of that requires money, and with cuts to budgets for
local authorities, councils are going to have to start thinking about
alternative funding sources for local services.
2. The anti-establishment backlash
There’s been much written about people losing trust in experts
and growing tired of the Westminster bubble. Without repeating what’s already
been said, in short we can certainly see a trend that favours a recapturing of
personal agency. For many people that agency, and their personal identity along
with it, is rooted in their community, where for too long they’ve felt
powerless. People want to feel like they matter again, and they want
politicians to respect and reflect that in office. That will mean that policy
makers will need to stay closer to home, and focus on the things that matter to
people’s everyday lives.
3. Introducing Mayors
Perhaps the most important element though, and potentially
the biggest driver of philanthropy in towns and cities will be the 23 newly
elected English Mayors who have taken up office across the country. Although currently
limited in their scope for policy and spending decisions, these mayors can
actually wield significant soft power, and if they wanted to could act as focal
points for the development of local philanthropy in their area, leveraging in
far greater resources to address the challenges facing their communities.
The idea of mayors as philanthropic leaders is not a new
one. Dick Whittington was doing precisely this in the 15th century,
and much more recently Michael Bloomberg has been doing it in New York. The
Mayor’s Fund for London, and the establishment of a new fund in Manchester
started by Mayor Andy Burnham are examples a little closer to home (and more
modern day) of how this might work.
For a more in depth look at the role that mayors can play in
driving philanthropy in our towns and cities, take a look at CAF’s new paper ‘Chain
Links; The Role of Mayors in Building a Culture of Civic Philanthropy’,
it’s the first part of our ‘Giving for the City’ programme which launches today
and looks at how philanthropy can play an important role in reinvigorating UK
towns and cities.
We’ll be working hard to disseminate this message to policy
makers too in the hope that it might just give them something other than trains
to talk about.