IF researcher, Toby Whelton, explores what the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill could mean for intergenerational fairness.
A national or local problem?
Questions of intergenerational fairness naturally lend themselves to a national or even a global perspective. Topics such as fiscal policy, student finance, or pension reform are generally matters for central governments. How we choose to apportion resources and burdens between old, young, and future generations is often decided by national debate.
However, in many ways, intergenerational fairness, or unfairness, is experienced at the local level. Do families have access to early years support and good schools in their local community? Do adolescents have access to safe social spaces and youth clubs? Are young families able to purchase a home near their relatives in order to ease the burden of childcare?
The manifestations of intergenerational inequality are often regionally specific. Housing costs are the greatest challenge for the majority of Londoners; meanwhile, young people in “left-behind” seaside towns are more likely to be preoccupied by a dearth of job prospects.
Is devolution the answer?
Some local problems require local solutions. Arguably, individuals are more likely to care for a struggling young family next door than one on the other side of the country. Sometimes it is easier for us to grasp the importance of preserving our local park for future generations than to connect with more abstract or technocratic mechanisms for achieving net zero.
This communitarian theory of change underlies the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. The legislation has just passed its second reading in the Commons and stands to be the greatest change to the devolution settlement in decades.
The Bill will create a strategic authority to quicken and ease the devolution of powers from Westminster to local government. It will provide the foundation for further devolution. For example, mayoral authorities will have “the right to request” further powers from the central government.
The legislation will fundamentally change how the country is governed, but what will the consequences be for intergenerational fairness?
Assets of Community Value
As the name suggests, the Bill is not just about devolution, but also community empowerment. It will introduce a community right to buy so that community groups will have first dibs on purchasing local assets, such as pubs, clubs, venues and community centres etc, that go up for sale. Communities will have a year to put together a bid before assets are on the market for private buyers.
This will offer a lifeline for preserving social spaces for young people. Between 2020 and 2024, over 2,000 pubs and a quarter of all late-night venues closed. Community centres, music venues and youth clubs have declined at similar rates.
Despite Gen Z being the “loneliest generation”, they are not inherently antisocial. Studies show they desire connection as much, if not more, than any other generation, except a lack of social spaces have left them willing but unable. This has been to the detriment of their well-being, sense of belonging and mental health.
Opium of the masses
The legislation will automatically categorise sports venues, such as football pitches or swimming pools, as assets of community value. Likewise, local football clubs will come under the new community right to buy rules.
Football clubs epitomise a model of intergenerational practice. Many clubs have been pillars of local communities for decades and this has only been made possible by previous generations stewarding the club and integrating subsequent generations. To support a football club is to be in transhistorical unity with past, present and future supporters.
However, the flooding of private capital into the “beautiful game” has taken it away from its communal origins. The next generation of supporters are being priced out in favour of short-term profit for billionaire owners.
More community ownership of football clubs should enable more youth participation.
All-powerful mayors
Community empowerment may sound heart-warming, but the Bill also contains more hard-nosed policy relating to housing.
Mayors of combined authorities will be granted a sweep of new planning powers. Strategic authorities will be required to produce a Spatial Development Strategy to guide development for local authorities. Mayors will have the power to raise a Community Infrastructure Levy as well as the power to directly grant planning permission, bypassing the application process.
These changes should in theory assist the building of new homes. Concentrating power in the mayor’s office as opposed to local authorities should hopefully avoid the worst excesses of Nimbyism. The recently announced £39 billion investment in social and affordable homes will also mean empowered mayors will have the financial backing necessary to build the homes the UK desperately needs.
Dangers ahead
There is much to be excited about in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. However, devolution by itself is no panacea. It will not solve the fundamental dilemma of how to distribute scarce resources in an ageing society. According to our research, between 2004–05 and 2023–24, the gap in total spending on children and pensioners widened by 170% in real terms. Currently, around 30% of government spending is directed to pensions, health and social care. By 2045 this number could be closer to 45 to 50% of total public spending.
Whether local or central governments are in charge of this spending will not change this fiscal and demographic reality. The experience of austerity warned us that, if anything, when local governments’ budgets are under pressure, youth services are often the first to be cut.
Devolution will offer opportunities to build a more intergenerationally fair society, but there must be safeguards to protect investment and services for young people and future generations. Our work on Intergenerational Impact Assessments, which was piloted in Oxfordshire County Council, would be a good place to start.
Help us to be able to do more
Now that you’ve reached the end of the article, we want to thank you for being interested in IF’s work standing up for younger and future generations. We’re really proud of what we’ve achieved so far. And with your help we can do much more, so please consider helping to make IF more sustainable. You can do so by following this link: Donate.
Photo by Illiya Vjestica on Unsplash.