The sharing economy is about building a sustainable future
For those unaware of what the sharing economy is, just look to your phone.
Whether it’s renting someone else’s home for a holiday, borrowing a designer dress, or sharing a car with strangers, peer-to-peer platforms are allowing us to trade our spaces, skills and stuff, all at the click of a button.
Right now, 5.3m people in Britain alone participate in the sharing economy. The increasing interest in making sustainable choices, combined with an ever-growing familiarity with using tech in our day-to-day lives, has led to a boom in the sector — which is now worth £8bn to the UK economy.
While the products and services that these innovative companies offer are very different, from connecting you to the right person to help you with some DIY to allowing you to share a car journey with someone else heading to the same destination, they all have the same collective mission: to use existing resources to reduce waste.
We’ve all seen the headlines that the world is facing a climate emergency. Urgent action is needed by governments across the globe — and the sharing economy can be part of the solution.
To give you just one example, to reach net-zero by 2050 in the UK, we need to get 36m cars off the roads — that’s 20,000 a week. Innovative car-sharing companies will obviously have a part to play in that transition. They’re a solution that didn’t even exist a decade ago.
And that’s only the start of how the sharing economy can help. This is a sector built around the idea of sustainability and maximising efficient use of resources. But it needs government backing if the UK is to see a huge shift in how customers behave and spend their hard-earned cash.
The government can use next week’s Budget to signal support for this sector. First, it should raise the tax-free amount for individuals participating in the sharing economy from £1,000, to £5,000 per year. Simplifying the tax framework and ensuring that the UK’s approach to digital taxation supports growing businesses will incentivise people to work in the sharing economy.
Second, to help meet our net-zero targets specifically, the government should launch a consultation on encouraging the use of shared mobility and the transition to electric vehicles. The Netherlands, for instance, runs a scheme where employees have a tax-free allowance for their commute.
Finally, it is vital that businesses have access to the right skills and talent so they can scale up. It’s clear that the apprenticeship levy is challenging for many smaller firms and startups. It’s why the government must use the upcoming Budget to announce a comprehensive review into the system.
Now is the time to shape an economy that generates prosperity but also protects our people and planet.
We have the imagination, the technology, the talent, and the collective will to address the challenge, and build a genuinely sustainable economy that enables us to share more — and waste less.
Main image credit: Getty