During the EU referendum campaign, Amand Menom came to Newcastle and spoke about how leaving the EU would mean that the United Kingdom would lose a considerable amount of its GDP. Events have proved Menom right in many respects. However, that didn’t stop a woman at the event in 2016 shouting out, “that’s your bloody GDP not ours!”

This perhaps was the crux of the whole referendum debate. Many people in the places like – North East England felt that there was little if anything to lose from voting to leave the EU, because they were seeing so little of what prosperity the country as a whole was enjoying.

Cooperative solutions

It is against this background that the Cooperative party has brought out a new report. The report makes a number of serious points, which should be of interest to all of us who want to see communities thrive and people believing that they do have a stake in the collective GDP of the country.

This is particularly important if we are to have cohesive communities and a similarly cohesive country. As the report points out, “stubborn income and regional inequalities show that the trickle-down orthodoxy has failed many communities across the UK”, while “the UK’s productivity growth was half the rate of the richest OECD countries, that our mid-2023 wages matched those of the financial crisis and that the income per person of the richest local authority was 4.5 times that of the poorest”.

Among other issues, the report highlights the role that communities are already playing in solving nation’s problems. This seems to make sense. A top-down model, dreamed up in the ivory towers of Westminster, Whitehall and other places in London, simply can’t solve all our problems as a nation, because so many of those who work within the M25 bubble, have so little understanding of the needs, aspirations and potential of areas such the North East.

Already, many communities are pioneering solutions to problems such as climate change, community cohesion and the cost-of-living crisis. This organic way of solving our problems, me4ans that people can feel part of the solutions, rather than being branded part of the problem as they sadly too often are.

In this way, the report points out that government would be giving people a sense of hope as opposed to alienation and disillusionment. In this way, people would be able to show what can happen if people are empowered.

This is vitally needed at the moment, as too many communities across the country and especially in regions such as our won feel powerless. This in turn breeds to desperation and resentment and they can become fertile ground for the malignant forces of the far-right.

A new economic model

Consequently, the report highlights that we need to grow our economy from the grassroots with a different economic model, which will see wealth being shared out more equally and more fairly.

Interestingly, the idea has its roots in international development, as too often changes in countries’ GDP across Africa and Asia have done little to improve lives. The report argues convincingly that it is similar in this country due to the inequalities which are baked into our current economic model.

The report makes another important point, which again we can relate back to the famous comment in Newcastle in 2016. The quality and distribution of growth matters such as much as the pace. It is no use for many in this country if GDP rises quickly if the vast majority of that growth is concentrated in the hands of a few people in sone relatively small corner of the country.

National government as facilitator

However, while communities can do some things for themselves at present and are finding solutions to our problems, there is a limit to what can be achieved without national government support.

Therefore, the report also puts the case for the state acting as a facilitator or enabler to community growth. As it states, “If the state completely withdraws, which it has historically done, some of it will happen organically, but really, really slowly. We need to see wealth creation for communities now, and for that the state has a job to do. That’s the model that we need to have if we want to have grassroots growth”

Again, this seems to make sense. It is really only government at national level that has the power and resources, to really help make this Cooperative vision real. We must see the end of the London-focussed government and a genuine spreading out of both resources and power from Westminster and Whitehall.

An important report

This is an important report, reminding us that economic growth will only be helpful to the public in general is its rewards are distributed fairly. It is not helpful to have economic growth and if it just makes the rich richer and leaves the vast majority of people untouched.

It is also true that a time when the far-right is on the march again, it is equally important to help communities, especially in the so-called ‘left behind’ areas, to feel empowered. These communities have many people within them who have the skills, the networks and the determination to improve their communities, with an economic growth that can lead to real social growth and a better quality of life for all.

They should be given the opportunity to show what they can do. Then perhaps we can all feel that we have a stake in the nation’s wealth and prosperity.

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