Restitch: The Social Fabric Summit
Today is the London day of Restitch: The Social Fabric Summit. We are bringing together the most interesting thinkers and practitioners to celebrate community, discuss the challenges facing our societies, and share practical steps to revive left-behind places and restore our fraying social fabric after the pandemic.
There is still time to sign up to watch today’s session online, and to attend the Halifax day in person or online, using this registration link. The Halifax day will be taking place at the Piece Hall on Friday 27th May. In addition to registering, you can choose which breakout session you want to join on each day of the summit.
New Podcast!
To coincide with Restitch, today we are launching Building Belonging, a new podcast brought to you by Onward and The Cares Family, about civic innovators and the stories behind the institutions they’re building to bring us together in an age of disconnection.
Join Alex Smith and Will Tanner for deep conversations with the people who are restitching our social fabric, including Jon Yates, Sophia Parker, Ivo Gormley, Kim Leadbeater MP and more. Subscribe here.
Upcoming event: A Remote Chance?
On June 6th, join us for an event with Zoom on the future of work and the long-term economic and social impact of hybrid working in a post-pandemic world. Speaking at this event are Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business Paul Scully MP, Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central Jo Gideon MP, Bloomberg’s UK Economy Reporter Lizzy Burden and Zoom’s Director of Government Relations for the UK & Ireland, Charlotte Holloway.
You can sign up for the event here.
Onward Note
Levelling Up was always going to be difficult but it’s gotten harder recently. The cost of living crisis is hitting parts of the Midlands and the North hard and Ukraine has (rightly) absorbed an enormous amount of Government time.
In the face of all these pressures, it’s understandable that progress has been limited. But that needs to change fast. The public understands that regeneration won’t happen overnight, they want to see results. The conversation in Westminster often focuses on national projects – but when voters think about Levelling Up, their focus is much more local.
As part of a new research programme Levelling Up In Practice, Onward have been spending time in communities to understand their priorities. We started our work in Oldham, which Michael Gove singled out in his 2021 conference speech as a litmus test for whether Levelling Up has been a success.
When we spoke to people there about levelling up, their priorities were rooted in a sense of local identity. They told us about the history of Tommyfield Market in the town centre, which used to be ‘buzzing’. They talked about antisocial behaviour. They painted a picture of boarded up shops and blighted buildings.
It’s easy to be dismissive about this version of Levelling Up. Some have cynically argued that a focus on ‘hanging baskets’ won’t turn around areas of the country that have been suffering decline and reduced investment for decades.
But what that misses is the role of hope and aspiration in kickstarting regeneration. People in Oldham told us about the high street because it is symbolic. It reflects the fact that they felt forgotten and ignored, and believed that the people who were meant to be in charge – both on the local Council and in Westminster – don’t care.
Balancing these two versions of the agenda – Levelling Up fast and slow – is the trick that Ministers need to pull off. Taking small, concrete actions today to give communities hope that things start to change. And then delivering major changes to how government invests and supports economic growth over the long term
We’ve published an interim report sharing some of our lessons from Oldham, and providing some actionable ideas for local leaders. Our approach is rooted in the local. It doesn’t place additional strain on central government and it doesn’t take years to see results.
But it does require a commitment to stay the course on Levelling Up, and remember the importance of regeneration to the new electoral coalition the Conservatives convened in 2019.
Adam Hawksbee
Deputy Director of Onward
Quick Links
 spectator.co.uk Wealth breeds complacency. The UK economy is being hampered at every turn. |
 ft.com Conservative voters don’t always see eye to eye with the members in charge of choosing a new PM |
