In an opinion piece for the Guardian on 9 July, Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, laid out his plans for welfare reform. Burnham stated that the recent Welfare Bill debate on cuts to disability benefits, had demonstrated just how important he felt it was for there to be “a shared responsibility across the Labour family to support the government with alternative approaches to welfare reform”. He went on to say how “in Greater Manchester, where there was strong opposition to the cuts, his administration had accepted their responsibility entirely”.
Burnham stated that the Department of Work and Pensions'(DWP) previous system did not work for people and is still unworkable. He proposed that a “unifying version of reform” is needed and set out his vision of how that would work in a new model of support.
Manchester as a ‘prevention demonstrator’
Burnham introduced the concept of a ‘prevention demonstrator’, grounded in the goal of preventing social issues from arising. It embraces a philosophy of “a bottom-up, names-not-numbers approach to supporting people with the essentials for a good life”. In Greater Manchester, he identified that people are faced with issues of “housing, personal debt and mental health”. It is more effective to concentrate on these human issues – a “whole person approach” – rather than trying to work with the complexities of DWP processes.
He believes that there are three big ideas which would satisfy the savings required by the Office for Budget Responsibility and finance the removal of the two-child benefit cap.
Housing: a top priority
The first big idea is to address housing. Burnham makes the point that in Greater Manchester the 10-year programme begins with housing. Burnham said that he was “stunned by the extent to which the media debate on benefits underplays the impact of the housing crisis. It inflates the benefits bill by multiple billions – but is also entirely fixable”.
The new Greater Manchester 10-year plan recently published, is described as being “anchored on the idea of a ‘housing first’ city region”; having the foundation of a good home makes life better for the residents of the city, and consequently housing, and in particular, alleviating the housing crisis will be “a number one priority”.
Burnham hopes that within two to three years “a tipping point” will be reached, when more social housing is being built than is being lost, and this initiative will go alongside a ‘good landlord’ charter, with a tougher approach to improving standards in the private rented sector. With ambitions to go much further, he proposes that in an ideal world, building “a new generation of council homes” would be the alternative to subsidising private housing.
Supporting people into work
Burnham also wants to see the establishment of the second part of his prevention demonstrator programme. He envisages a large shift in employment support, away from a tick box system which many people regard as complicated, are afraid to engage with and leave them feeling the system has too many traps.
He advocates moving towards “a more empowering ‘Live Well’ approach”, based on the premise that people will thrive on a system that they trust, and which deals with the very human issues that affect people’s lives. This will include working at a local level with community and voluntary organisations, and helping with issues like personal debt in order to support people into work.
Young people
The third element of the programme focuses on preventing young people from becoming part of the statistic of one million NEETs (Not in Employment, Education or Training). Burnham wants to end what he sees as an education system that works for some, but not for all, in particular, an “obsession with the university route”. He instead wants to see a technical education path equivalent to the academic one, so that teenagers who are not particularly academic, but have the personal qualities and interest in using their practical skills, can follow a route forward from the age of 14.
The plan is for the Greater Manchester baccalaureate (Mbacc) to establish “the guarantee of a 45-day work placement for every young person who wants one”.
Burnham’s plan: intelligent, imaginative and sensible
Burnham says that he is ” confident our prevention demonstrator, in its entirety, could significantly reduce reliance on the benefits system and other public services like the NHS. We have never truly tried prevention in this country. If there was ever a time to give it a proper go, surely it is now?”
Burnham seems to be the only major politician in this country with a thorough analysis of what is going wrong in Britain today, and the intelligence and imagination to come up with sensible, thought-through, long-term answers to some of our society’s problems.
It seems eminently sensible that Burnham is starting with housing; along with food, water and clothing, shelter is one of the most basic human requirements. It has been well documented that Greater Manchester has had a homelessness problem for a number of years. However, since this is a problem that Burnham has tackled head on already, it would make sense for the expertise that has been built up in this work, to be used first in developing the reforms that are suggested.
The second part of the plan also seems reasonable. The DWP punishment regime of the last 15 years, so clearly exposed in the Tyneside-based film, I, Daniel Blake, has been both cruel and shown to be inefficient. It was set up to a large extent for political reasons, to fit the Osborne narrative of pitting what he called “strivers against skivers”. It has failed miserably. It is far better to be supportive and help people back into work, and this seems to be what Burnham is proposing.
A focus on diversity in education is welcome
I am particularly pleased to see the third part of Burnham’s plan. The education system at present is letting down hundreds of thousands of young people, offering a curriculum which is far too narrow and which teachers are often finding boring, never mind the pupils.
I have argued that we need our own curriculum in the North West region, suited to the needs and culture of our young people. The Manchester baccalaureate would give pupils, not suited to an academic curriculum, a clear route forward and would seem to be a useful model to be replicated throughout the region. It would give hope and a sense of purpose to our young people, encouraging them to see education as something useful, which can help them in life, while also helping to rebuild our skills bank, as we go through the transition to a carbon neutral economy and other major changes in society.
Burnham has provided imaginative, practical answers to problems in Greater Manchester. Thinking ahead to 2026, it will be half a century since we last had a Prime Minister born in the North of England. Perhaps it is time for another one.
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