The road to socialism is the A59: the Preston model.
| Author | O'Neill, Martin |
| Position | Interview |
Martin O'Neill speaks to Councillor Matthew Brown about Community Wealth-Building and Alternative Economic Strategies in Preston.
On 20 April 2016, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell chose an employee-owned business in Preston, Lancashire as the venue for a speech that sketched a way in which the ideas of radical economic thinkers such as Mariana Mazzucato could stand behind a different vision of local economic development. The location was well-chosen, for just as 'the Cleveland Model' has come to stand for a more democratic and egalitarian approach to economic development in the United States, so the radical and imaginative policies being developed by the Labour council Preston have begun to be discussed as a 'Preston Model'. In a bleak era of accelerated inequality and government austerity, the emerging Preston Model shows that there is still impressive scope for action for local authorities committed to a fairer and more just society. One of the model's most impressive aspects is that, although it is a radical strategy for creating a democratic socialist economy, it proceeds by gradual steps. It can also call on straightforward and pragmatic arguments for mutual self-help, that can be compelling for the local community and which, as Peter Rankin, the council Leader puts it, can be presented as simple, sensible policy to even the most apolitical local stakeholders.
A couple of weeks ahead of John McDonnell's visit, Renewal Commissioning Editor Martin O'Neill travelled to Preston to meet with Councillor Matthew Brown, described by Peter Rankin as the 'visionary' thinker behind the Preston Model.
Inequality & Austerity
Martin O'Neill: I'd like to start off, before we discuss the community wealth-building strategies that you've been pursuing, with some general background. What would you say have been the most pressing economic problems facing Preston? What's the economic context behind your efforts to create a more democratic economy?
Matthew Brown: In Preston we have significant economic problems, but we're also very lucky. We have lots of place-based institutions like the university, lots of public sector workers, advanced manufacturing nearby. We're quite blessed in that respect, compared to other places in Lancashire. But the main problem, from my perspective, is the level of poverty. Although we're improving in the Index of Deprivation, there are still some extremely poor areas. Until recently, in one part of the city you could expect to live to eight-two, and in another only to sixty-six. For me, that was the main issue we wanted to address. To do what we could to create an economy that benefitted everyone.
Martin O'Neill: The background of austerity from central government has curtailed the freedom of action that Labour councils might otherwise have had. Can you tell me about the level of cuts that Preston has faced, and about how alternative economic development strategies have helped you to deal with this background of austerity?
Matthew Brown: These alternative strategies are emerging in other parts of Europe and the United States and have been very successful. I've always been supportive of them because I believe it's a better way to have a healthy society. But the cuts have made things much more difficult. Preston City Council's budget has gone down from over 30 million [pounds sterling] to just under 20 million [pounds sterling], a huge cut. Our response has to be really creative. We have to ask ourselves: what are local politicians for? Because you're a city council, but also a lot of councillors are school governors, or on housing associations, or colleges, or universities, or hospital wards, or pension fund boards. If you look at the influence we have through all these institutions, that's a huge amount of money that we can influence. There's a huge amount of wealth still in our communities. We need to look holistically at the wealth and potential of our communities.
Labour councils need to wake up to the fact that the 2008 crisis was a crisis of the economic system, and respond accordingly. Vast quantities of public money were used to bail out the banks which were not properly regulated. They weren't under any real form of democratic control. That's the cause of austerity. The austerity program comes from the fact that we've got a dysfunctional system. At a local, regional, and national level, the Labour Party needs to begin to create alternative economic systems, to learn from the best thinking elsewhere in the world.
Some of the best examples are happening in American cities. A lot of our ideas are taken from the 'Cleveland Model,' where community wealth-building strategies are perhaps most advanced. But they're also happening all over. The political response to austerity we've seen, with Jeremy Corbyn and also with Bernie Sanders, is inevitable. People will only tolerate for so long a multimillionaire class taking more and more and leaving ninety-nine per cent of people with less and less. Eventually, people wake up to it.
Building Community Wealth
Martin O'Neill: So you very much see the community wealth-building approach that you have here, the kind of initiative that Preston has taken, as the response to problems of austerity and a way of dealing with it. Can you just tell us more about the features of this community wealth-building approach? What kind of elements it has, how they fit together, and how it came about?
Matthew Brown: It...
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