Fairness Foundation

Using research and advocacy to put fairness at the centre of policy-making in the UK

[Fairness Foundation @fairnessfdn]

💡Important contribution from @roz_savage today at PMQs, calling for a much-needed cap on political donations.

For a fairer politics, we must finally address the unchecked influence of big money in our politics.

🔗 Read our previous piece here: https://t.co/lxyvVjTawp

[Tom Darling @a_darling_tom]

1/ Today I'm launching @NewContractUK.

A new progressive organisation making the case for a managed, just, and worker-led AI transition.

The debate has been ceded to pro-Big Tech lobbyists (*cough* Tony Blair *cough*) and reactionary voices. I’m hoping to change that. 🧵

[The New Contract @NewContractUK]

We're launching today.

Nearly 40 trade unions and civil society organisations have signed our letter calling for the new AI Economics Institute's remit to be expanded to cover tax, welfare, industrial strategy and more

The AI transition must be managed, just, and worker-led.

[Fairness Foundation @fairnessfdn]

☀️ As temperatures soar, it's a timely moment to revisit our report on how wealth inequality amplifies heatwave risks.

Based on an expert roundtable, it shows how inequality increases vulnerability to extreme heat, and what can be done about it.

🔗 https://t.co/rF38glmRwW

[Fairness Foundation @fairnessfdn]

📝In our latest edition of Fair Comment, we summarise 11 key insights from a recent workshop at @BristolUni on how people think about fairness and inequality, organised by @PaulHufe

🔗Read the full piece here: https://t.co/byXwZQiN5u

[Clive Lewis MP @labourlewis]

We need a new ‘total’ economic settlement - one that builds economic resilience:

A House of Lords committee has just warned that drought could threaten UK food production, with public water demand outstripping supply by 5 billion litres a day by 2055. Aging, privatised infrastructure, climate volatility, and new water-hungry industries like data centres are colliding at once.

This sits alongside the Joint Intelligence Committee’s own assessment – written by the heads of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, initially blocked by Downing Street – warning that by 2030 the UK food system is at “strategic risk of catastrophic failure”.

These are not separate stories. Drought, food security, AI disruption, energy shocks, supply chain fragility: they are facets of the same condition. A country hollowed out by forty years of privatisation and short-termism, trying to face a century of compounding instability with the institutions of a previous age.

Defence can no longer mean tanks, submarines and the threat from Russia alone. Those threats are real. But the front line now also runs through reservoirs, data centres, food supply chains, the labour market, and the social contract itself.

A society fractured by inequality, dependent on collapsing ecosystems and brittle private monopolies, is not a secure one. Security has to be understood whole. What’s needed is a new total economic settlement: democratic control of essentials, public investment in productive capacity, and monetary and fiscal levers used to prepare – not just compensate after the fact. Water, food, energy, compute, skills: treated as the strategic infrastructure of national survival.

We are at the foothills of this. Our politics is still arguing about the last decade. The next one is already here.

[Fairness Foundation @fairnessfdn]

🚨Today we’ve released Takers, a new report setting out the strong public mandate for tackling wealth extraction in the UK.

📈We show how extraction is undermining fairness in our economy, and why policymakers need to act.

🔗 Read here: https://t.co/H1YppytbWS

[Fairness Foundation @fairnessfdn]

A timely moment to revisit our March interview with @AndyBurnhamGM 👇

In the piece, the Mayor reflects on the next steps in building a fairer economy that works for all communities through fair growth and balanced development.

🔗https://t.co/SmEpuE1IRG

[Cost of Living Action @CostOfLivingAct]

Labour MPs and the public disagree on the government's handling of the cost of living crisis, Cost of Living Action polling finds.

The public expects more on the cost of living, but MPs don't see how out of step they are with what we need.

@alb_toth

https://t.co/TGSj3tN5ru

[Patriotic Millionaires UK @PatMillsUK]

Millionaires are five times more concerned about doctors leaving the UK than they are about other millionaires emigrating 💸

Our poll also found millionaires are proud to live in the UK, and they're willing to pay more tax to invest in our country and its young people.

[Fairness Foundation @fairnessfdn]

This report by @MarkMcvitie offers a serious & clear-eyed appraisal of Britain's unfair, extractive economy, where the social contract no longer fairly rewards contribution.

These arguments closely align with our recent polling & draw on our latest report by @williamnhutton👇

[Labour Growth Group @LabourGrowth]

This is for the people who do the work.

The nurses doing double shifts. The teachers who stay late. The plumbers, the carers, the small builders, the people running shops. The graduates trying to build a life. The founders who chose to build something here.

Britain has stopped being a country that backs them.

Over 40 years of political choices Britain has built an economy where owning things pays better than building them.

Holding scarce land. Holding protected market positions. Holding the right credentials. Holding the right postcode. Gaming process. Capturing public money meant for someone else.

These have become safer routes to reward than working, investing, teaching, caring, manufacturing or taking productive risk.

This isn't a conspiracy. It's the predictable result of a state that has lost the ability to build, decide, enforce and shape markets in the public interest.

The planning system rations land. The energy system rations power. Capital fails to scale British firms. Regulation protects incumbents and crushes challengers. Tax falls hard on work and lightly on position.

Government compensates people for the costs this creates. But in rationed markets, that compensation is often captured by the same scarcity that made it necessary. Public money flows through broken systems and strengthens the very interests that broke them.

Fiscal space shrinks. The state becomes more cautious, less capable, more dependent on the processes that created the failure. The loop tightens.

An Honest Day is a new economic settlement for Britain. The shift required is from a distributive state to a capable one. Support people now. Reform the scarcity that makes support necessary. Reward action, not position.

Read it now

https://t.co/Wluq39f59s

[Fairness Foundation @fairnessfdn]

And here's part one: https://t.co/Vn3SOgBf6C

[Fairness Foundation @fairnessfdn]

Policy is personal! A guest post by Charlie Chan, Director of United Communities, reflecting on her own experience of the real-life impacts of policy decisions👇 https://t.co/0FAwmfQldS

[Fairness Foundation @fairnessfdn]

The stories (not) told about places: A second guest post by Charlie Chan, Director of United Communities, on the importance of knowing a community from the inside and of working with communities rather than doing things for or to them 👇https://t.co/4yE1U4GyFY

[Fairness Foundation @fairnessfdn]

Policy is personal! A guest post by Charlie Chan, Director of United Communities, reflecting on her own experience of the real-life impacts of policy decisions👇 https://t.co/0FAwmfQldS

[Fairness Foundation @fairnessfdn]

💵In a new piece for HopeWorks, our Senior Researcher Jack Jeffrey explores how republican political theory can help campaigners make the case on wealth in ways that resonate with the public 👇

🔗Read the full piece here: https://t.co/dZbyrf9Wgh

[Fairness Foundation @fairnessfdn]

Why are governments so dependent on private capital for investment and how do big institutional investors shape our economy? Find out more in our interview with Brett Christophers: https://t.co/bmCIBzVe7a

[Fairness Foundation @fairnessfdn]

After @FairerShare's petition hit 15,000 signatures, the Government responded, but doubled down on defending an unfair status quo.

✍️Council Tax is outdated, regressive, & must be replaced. Add your voice today: https://t.co/HGYR9Jnjjx

🔗https://t.co/mUBg7dd30U

[Fairness Foundation @fairnessfdn]

If freedom is conceived as non-domination, can we be truly free in an economy marked by large and persistent concentrations of wealth? Read about our discussion with Stuart White and @UCLPolicyLab 👇https://t.co/IV532Cgqx7

[Fairness Foundation @fairnessfdn]

📚Stir to Action’s Book Festival brings together writers, thinkers, and organisers to explore working-class culture, democracy, regeneration, and technology.

📅 London 22-23 May
📍 St Katharine Cree, London

Check it out here 👇
🔗https://t.co/5IJIQV5zj7

[Fairness Foundation @fairnessfdn]

While the announcement of a cap on student loan interest rates is welcome, it will only affect a graduate’s total balance, not what they repay each month.

We need much bolder policy to build a fairer system.

🔗Sign @RethnkRepaymnt's petition:
https://t.co/0mvifzp48K