Britain needs a Marshall Plan for civic life

The “Marshall Plan for Civic Life” proposes a multi-billion pound, multi-year investment fund, supported by a collaborative effort between citizens, the state, philanthropy, and the private sector, say Polly Curtis and James Plunkett

Andy Burnham needs to find money for defence. He needs to find money for social care. He needs to find money for special education needs, to get 1m Neets back into work or training, and to ease the cost of living crisis. The shopping list is long but the fiscal rules are tight. 

The immediate funding problems are so big that they mask an underlying deficit that is driving many of these poor outcomes across the country. Over the past 15 years governments have effectively defunded communities. Local councils have stripped back spending on youth centres, libraries, social spaces for everyone to share, depleting our civic life and with it degrading our social capital. 

We see the results of this defunding of civic life everywhere: in loneliness and poor health, overwhelmed public services, and a febrile politics. For years, governments have neglected community. Now, we are paying the price. Social capital isn’t just a nice to have; it’s the hidden wealth of a nation. How can we refund communities to renew our social and economic fortunes? 

The original Marshall Plan is a model to learn from. The government should help coordinate a massive fund to rebuild civic infrastructure – akin to the US investment in Western Europe after the war – to reestablish the social and economic foundations that Burnham’s devolution agenda points towards.

When America helped to rebuild Europe after World War II, it did so at a massive scale – $13.3bn over four years (over $150bn in today’s terms). The fund rebuilt factories, farms and roads in 16 European countries in the wake of the war. 

Not just a funding model, a philosophy

But the Marshall Plan was about more than money; it was designed to build consent for the post war economic and political consensus. It was a philosophy and a funding architecture. After decades of civic decline in the UK, we need something similar: an architecture for catalytic investment in the work of civic renewal. 

Today we publish a range of options for building such a fund: a multi-billion pound, multi-year investment in civic life to renew social capital and fortify society and the economy. 

Our vision for the Marshall Plan for Civic Life is that the money comes from all the actors with an interest in our collective future: citizens, the state, philanthropy and the private sector. Citizen contributions could include membership models, community shares and crowd-funding; the state might contribute through hypothecated business levies, dormant asset schemes or tax relief; Philanthropy could include a joint commitment from major foundations, high net worth individuals and legacies; and the private sector could contribute through impact investment, and smarter use of local government pension funds and procurement.

The potential is not just to find the money for civic renewal but to develop a financial settlement that forms a new deal between state, citizen, civic sphere and private sector – each with a stake in the work of national renewal, and each invested in the best outcome for communities.

Communities are ready: as the state has retrenched in recent years, communities have stepped in and stepped up. From pioneering places like Grimsby and Plymouth, to initiatives like Power to Change and Big Local, we have seen what strong civic capacity looks like, and how it can be rebuilt. There is now a growing appetite, across government, philanthropy, and business, to support this movement for civic renewal. It deserves a funding settlement of equal ambition. 

Where the state has stepped away, it should now lean into this emerging innovation, and build new ways to revive our civic fortunes: Citizens, state, philanthropy and the private sector working together for a vibrant associational and community life. Sometimes government is about doing, sometimes it’s about getting out of the way, but with the Marshall Plan for Civic Life Burnham could bring his spirit of “collaborative politics” to life. 

Polly Curtis is an author, journalist and now CEO of the think tank Demos.

James Plunkett, a former policy advisor in Downing Street, is the founder of Kinship Works. You can find out more about the Marshall Plan for Civic Life at www.marshallplan.org.uk/