Universal Basic Income can help regional development
Original image by Quaid Lagan
Blog authors: Matthew Johnson is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at Lancaster University; Elliott Johnson is a Disability Researcher in Manchester. Both are from Tyneside.
Interest in Universal Basic Income (UBI) is often found in metropolitan areas among those in the gig economy. However, for those of us far removed from London, it could be the clearest means of remaking our regions.
Basic Income is a national citizens’ dividend. It’s the return on our tax and other investments that we make as a country. It removes the unfairness that many hardworking people feel about others receiving money when they themselves do not. Universal benefits and services like the NHS bring us all together and support us when we need it most. It also sweeps away bureaucracy and red tape by removing other benefits, and potentially the Department for Work and Pensions in the long-term.
The Government has been printing money for years ‘to encourage banks to lend money to businesses’. But this has just concentrated spending in London and the South East. Basic Income, on the other hand, gives everyday citizens money to spend as we see fit, including on our local High Streets and in small businesses.
People from wealthy families have their own basic income from inherited money. This enables them to experiment, start businesses and earn more throughout their lives. Poorer kids are no less talented, it’s just that they have to work jobs alongside their studies or are stuck in in-work poverty and zero-hours contracts.
For talented kids with less money in our region, often the only means of getting ahead is to move away to London or elsewhere. Like many others who have to leave the North East in search of work, we didn’t want to leave and leaving caused significant hardships. We would far prefer to be living and working in our own community. We had no choice to leave because we had no opportunities for work or to start business here.
Basic Income means that people in our communities can take risks and start businesses near home instead of moving away. That is the single biggest way of preventing the brain drain from our communities and rebalancing the economy, which the Government claims to support.
Basic Income can also support the NHS by reducing stress and the three quarters of the NHS budget that is spent on stress-related ill health. That’s important for all of us because the most stressed aren’t those at the top – they’re the everyday, hardworking citizens in our region.
Having a regular, predictable income means that people can feel safe and leave harmful relationships and workplaces knowing that they have money to fall back on. And there is no evidence that it reduces employment levels or encourages idleness.
We shouldn’t think of Basic Income as a giveaway. It’s the return on our investment in Britain and it benefits those who need it most. That’s important because the existing system isn’t just inefficient, it’s absolutely unfair. The Personal Tax Free Allowance saves wealthier people from paying thousands in tax. Corporate tax relief and tax avoidance schemes mean that Google pays a lower percentage of tax than most working families.
The wealth of the 1% has been built on the backs of working people in the North East and in our ‘left behind regions’. It’s not right and it’s not fair that people in the North East and elsewhere are having to go to foodbanks, pay the bedroom tax or lose wages for having to go to a hospital appointment. Making the 1% pay their way means that we can all get on with our own lives.
If you don’t live in London and you do want opportunities for you, your family, your friends and your community, get behind UBI.
More about the authors
Dr. Matthew Johnson
Dept: Politics, Philosophy and Religion - Lancaster University
My research interests broadly converge around the relationship between culture, public policy and wellbeing, leading me to examine such diverse topics as: Universal Basic Income and its effect on public health; national identity and austerity and their contribution to Brexit; and Widening Participation and Higher Education outreach.
Elliott Johnson
Independent Researcher
My research has cut across public health, disability, inclusion, welfare, education and workforce, usually with an emphasis on policy. My current focus is on the pathways by which hierarchies and uncertainty affect health, the impact of the UK welfare system on health behaviours and how Universal Basic Income could address some of these issues.
