Published: September 12, 2024
A group of leading experts have stated that the Prime Minister should use this month’s party conference for a ‘state of the nation’ address in a new publication released today.
The Belong Network, British Future and the Together Coalition have today published (Thurs 12 September), After the riots, which sets out a 12-point plan of policy proposals to address what it calls a “vacuum on communities policy”.
Their calls were echoed by former Communities Minister John Denham, the Bishop of Bradford and Professor Ted Cantle, author of the report into the 2001 race riots, who said “It is very disappointing that, after 23 years since my report and several others in between, we still do not have either a cohesion or integration strategy.”
The publication claims the government risks “recurring episodes of the kind of disturbances we have seen, and increased polarisation and social conflict in future,” if measures are not put in place to address the root causes of the violent disorder.
Instead, “Central government needs to provide leadership and a policy strategy, empowering local stakeholders to take action,” the authors say, which will require a national social cohesion strategy with funding to implement it, supporting and empowering local strategies from councils.
The paper calls for greater efforts to be made to increase social contact between different groups of people, and calls for schools and colleges to be required to increase mixing between students from different ethnic, faith and class backgrounds. They also emphasize the power of sport to bring communities together, highlighting local football and rugby league clubs as having the potential to increase levels of social contact across divides and develop shared local identities. The UK’s hosting of Euro 2028 in four years’ time could form the centrepiece for this work.
Jamie Scudamore, CEO of the Belong Network, said:
“The solutions to the challenges seen this summer are known by communities, but none of them are quick fixes. We need a national strategy that empowers local leaders with the tools and resources for action, with local authorities playing a vital leadership role.”
Sunder Katwala, Director of British Future, said:
“There’s been a vacuum on communities policy for too long and this summer we saw what that can lead to. Starmer’s initial response to the riots was strong, but he shouldn’t leave the job half done – now he needs to set out what we will do together to stop them happening again. The PM should set out at party conference his vision for the Britain we want to be, where communities live together well – and a plan to make that a reality.”
Brendan Cox of the Together Coalition, said:
“After every riot there are a few days of panic followed by many months of reviews and then a return to business as usual. That can’t happen this time. The attacks were too serious and the underlying drivers are likely to grow not diminish. The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister mustn’t let other pressures divert them from dealing with what happened and ensuring they have a plan to prevent it from ever happening again.”
The new paper also expresses the need for government to act to ensure that asylum accommodation does not become a focus for community grievance and proposes accommodation contractors informing local councils in advance before placing asylum seekers in their area; increasing local consultation and engagement; and using ‘welcoming hubs’ to increase positive contact between asylum seekers and local people, for example through local conversation clubs to improve people’s English. The new intervention was welcomed a range of voices with expertise and experience in community cohesion and integration.
Professor Ted Cantle, who wrote the seminal ‘Community Cohesion’ report responding to the 2001 riots in northern mill towns, said:
“It is very disappointing that, after 23 years since my report and several others in between, we still do not have either a cohesion or integration strategy. The irony is that the cost of this work is really quite modest, where the cost of inaction is so much greater. These proposals would put us back on track and we must not miss another opportunity to bring the country together and defeat the extremists.”
The three organisations are inviting partners, policy experts and politicians to an event in central London on 20 November to discuss these ideas and to shape national policy. Details will be circulated to our networks in the coming weeks.