Fear and HOPE 2024 | Recommendations

24 09 24

With the July General Election and August far-right riots in such recent memory, it is hard not to feel like 2024 could be a real turning point for the UK. Perceptions of multicultural Britain are negative, and although local identity is stronger than national identity, overall resilience is low.

Fear and HOPE 2024 makes the case for a programme of work based around community resilience that builds on our findings across policy, research and communities. Crucially, this work must be approached collaboratively, across departments, sectors and with local government and stakeholders as key partners. 

Changing the narrative

How can we tackle harmful and divisive rhetoric about marginalised groups?

As well as tackling hatred at the community level, we must challenge the top-down construction of a ‘permissive environment’ which has normalised anti-multiculturalism, as well as anti-Muslim and anti-migrant hatred.

  • Uphold standards and accountability for responsible language. We need courage and leadership by political parties to call out hateful or inflammatory rhetoric, from both political figures and the mainstream media. Parties should establish standards and clear processes for taking action when MPs do not meet them.
  • Tackle harmful online spaces. The implementation of the Online Safety Act should include scrutiny of social media platforms, including the amplification of online hate through recommendation algorithms, the spread of mis- and disinformation and the platforming of far-right actors who incite violence.
  • Media and digital literacy education. The Department for Education plans to include digital literacy in an updated curriculum are crucial, but training for parents – and adults more broadly – on digital literacy should be a responsibility of mainstream tech platforms. 

Structural change

How can policymakers and the third sector deliver meaningful change to boost resilience?

Changing people’s perspectives on their community will be more successful and sustainable if it is actually accompanied by material difference in their lives. Structural change is needed to better deliver for people and communities and tangibly meet their needs and address the current deficits across the broad range of issues this report has touched on – migration, multiculturalism, cohesion, democratic satisfaction, economic scarcity, and more. The Government’s current approach to addressing these issues is in need of transformative change. 

  • National strategy and accountability, local delivery. Giving community-based partners the support and resources to deliver place-based solutions is essential.
  • Cross-departmental working in national and local government. Education, healthcare, housing and technology should be feeding into the resilience conversation that is already happening in communities departments. 

National resilience strategy 

Who can lead a cross-sector, cross-governmental approach to tackling community resilience?

Given the scale of community resilience work, someone who can provide cross-departmental oversight is needed. We call on the Government to make the short-term appointment of a Community Resilience Czar who has expertise in overseeing cross-departmental working. The appointed Czar will assist with the creation and implementation of the cross-sector and cross-departmental strategy, setting up processes and mechanisms through which collaborative planning, action, monitoring and reflection can occur. 

  • Transparency and accountability. Although government czars are not typically bound by the Ministerial Code, the Czar should opt in to their appointment being contingent on upholding these standards.
  • The community resilience strategy must be scrutinised. The Czar should regularly report to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee. Government departments should include a review of work relating to community resilience in their Annual Reports. 

Cross-sector working

The following recommendations vary in their level of specificity and detail. Collaboration with experts across a number of sectors is required to get them off the ground, but with the right partnerships and cross-departmental government buy-in, transformation is well within reach.

Social connectedness

How can we create trust and mutual understanding across communities?

The Government urgently needs a community cohesion strategy that addresses both the short and long term threats to social cohesion. In the short term, the strategy should address community flare ups following trigger events. For the longer term, initiatives that proactively build up social connectedness should be pursued in order to strengthen resilience. 

Within each of these timeframes there must be a two-pronged approach to engagement. Firstly, amplifying trusted, sensible voices to distribute narratives of inclusion, connection and tolerance will help keep the moderate middle united and strong. Simultaneously there must be efforts to target the extreme fringes with interventions that address the root cause of their hatred towards other groups.

  • Reconvene the cross-departmental cohesion working group. This should include members with links across local and regional government, public bodies, civil society organisations, and faith groups, with proposals for activity at local, regional and national levels.
  • Funding and support for local authorities, especially in areas with higher risk. Creating a dynamic measurement framework that identifies areas most in need and is able to respond with resources quickly will allow for effective preventative work.
  • Develop effective tension monitoring. This will combine local authority and police, social media and national-level insights to proactively identify potential trigger points and allow for early intervention.
  • Cohesion between ethnic minority and religious groups. Moving away from framing cohesion as only white and non-white relations will make our understanding of the problem more accurate. 

Economic scarcity

How do we stop people feeling like they are competing for the same resources? 

Developing a way of talking about difficulties with accessing resources that builds solidarity across struggling groups rather than pitting them against each other is essential: the cost of living can no longer be the elephant in the room when it comes to community resilience.  Fixing the economy and lowering the cost of living are already central and local government priorities, but connecting the dots between treasury decisions and community resilience through messaging would be helpful. 

  • Fair funding review. Labour’s commitment to reviewing how money is distributed to local authorities must include reviewing the ways in which relative needs and resources are assessed, as well as tangible reforms to local government financing that protects against income loss. 
  • Invest in areas with low community resilience. The August 2024 riots have laid bare the link between economic deprivation and low resilience to hateful narratives and far-right agitation. In addition to addressing cohesion, providing access to resources and quality of services in these areas will boost resilience. 
  • Train people in frontline positions to intervene. Equipping frontline support services and community leaders with the tools to have difficult conversations that challenge harmful views combines practical help with economic solidarity narratives.

Democratic satisfaction

How can we make people’s voices heard?

The 2024 General Election turnout rate shows that deeper research is needed into the intricacies of people’s dissatisfaction with voting and its political impact. Our research has shown that people feel stronger connections with their local than national community; repairing relationships and satisfaction with politics at the local level is the first step in addressing the wider anti-politics movement. 

  • Introduce democratic reforms which increase voter turnout. These should especially target marginalised voters who are underrepresented in local and general elections.
  • Repair trust in standards in government and public life. This could include changes to ministerial standards, improving the right to protest, and greater accountability for the press and media.
  • Improve financing of local government. Supporting local governments to deliver for their residents could help reframe the wider relationship between people, politics and power. 

Migration

How do we take the sting out of migration and stop it from being exploited?

We need to take advantage of multi-tasking policy solutions which are already being developed by organisations in the migration sector, as they give migrants dignity and treat them with compassion but also contribute to community resilience.

  • Allowing new migrants to be part of Britain. Policies that enable eligible new migrants to become involved in civic society, such as pathways to citizenship and the right to vote, will boost connectedness and empower these traditionally underrepresented groups. Reinstating and increasing funding for ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) is also crucial. 
  • Allowing people seeking asylum the right to work. Not only is this important for people seeking asylum, it sidesteps ‘scrounger’ narratives and helps embed people into their local community.
  • Identifying welcoming communities. Dispersal and hotel accommodation might still need to be used, but areas should be risk assessed and areas more likely to participate in community welcoming schemes should be prioritised.

Cross-sector work on class solidarity. Organisations across the progressive sector should develop a shared language around need. This is crucial to preventing a wedge from being driven between immigrants and British people.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT

Our latest report identifies the drivers of fear and hope and the triggers that push people from one to the other. This year, we look at 2024 as a pivotal point for the UK, with the General Election in July and riots in August. We look back at the archive of Fear and HOPE reports since 2011, seeing how public attitudes have changed under 14 years of Conservative governments. Download the full report today.

DOWNLOAD

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